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Sealed Documents

Sealed documents are confidential documents that are not viewable by the public, such as sensitive personal information or trade secrets. This court has a strong preference in favor of public access to documents, so this court will require a party to justify the sealing of a document, even if the document was sealed in the lower court.

How to File a Sealed Document

When filing a sealed document electronically, you must use one of the specific electronic filing types for sealed documents so that it will not be viewable by the public.

You must submit your sealed document together with your motion to seal, notice of sealing, or notice of intent to unseal.

Asking this court to keep a document under seal

Even if a document was sealed in the lower court, if there is no statute or procedural rule that requires it to be sealed, you must file a motion asking this court to keep it under seal.

  • File the motion and the sealed document together electronically using the “Motion to File Document Under Seal and Sealed Document Submitted for Filing” filing type.

  • The motion must explain the specific reasons why the document should be sealed.

  • The motion will be provisionally under seal until the court makes a decision.

  • The motion must be a separate PDF file from the sealed document.

  • You must include a Certificate of Service with your sealed filing.

When the document is sealed by statute or procedural rule

If a statute or procedural rule requires a document to be filed under seal, you don’t have to ask the court for permission to keep it under seal. Instead, you simply file a Notice of Sealing and attach a copy of the statute or procedural rule to it.

  • File the notice with the statute or rule and the sealed document together electronically using the “Notice of Filing Document Under Seal and Sealed Document Submitted for Filing” filing type.

  • The notice must be a separate PDF file from the sealed document.

  • You must include a Certificate of Service with your sealed filing.

Presentence Reports

When filing a presentence report, attachments to the report, or any confidential sentencing memoranda, file the document(s) electronically using the “Presentence Report UNDER SEAL” filing type. No notice of sealing is required.

When you do not want to ask this court to keep a document under seal

If you are filing a document that was sealed in the lower court but are not asking this court to keep it under seal, you file a Notice of Intent to Unseal with the sealed document. This allows the other parties 21 days to file a motion to seal the document.

  • File the notice and the sealed document together electronically using the “Notice of Intent to Unseal and Document Submitted Provisionally Under Seal” filing type.

  • The notice must be a separate PDF file from the sealed document.

  • You must include a Certificate of Service with your sealed filing.

The document will remain under seal for 21 days. If no other party files a motion to seal, the court will unseal the document after the 21-day period ends.

Asking this court to keep another party’s filing under seal

If another party filed a notice of intent to unseal their sealed document and you want this court to keep that document under seal, you must file a motion to maintain the document under seal within 21 days of their notice.

  • File the motion and the sealed document together electronically using the “Motion to Maintain Document Under Seal” filing type.

  • The motion must explain the specific reasons why the document should be kept under seal.

  • The motion will be provisionally under seal until the court makes a decision.

  • You must include a Certificate of Service with your sealed filing.

Service of Sealed Documents

You must serve the sealed document and its accompanying motion or notice on all other case participants in paper form or by email if they are registered for e-filing or have otherwise agreed to email service. This is because any document submitted under seal, including the accompanying motion to seal or notice of sealing or intent to unseal, will not be viewable to the parties in the electronic filing system.

You must include a Certificate of Service with your sealed filing.

Format of Sealed Documents

  • Each sealed document or volume of documents must say “UNDER SEAL” on its cover, or first page if it has no cover.

  • If redaction of the confidential information in the document is possible, you must highlight in the unredacted version all portions that you are asking to seal.

Redacted Documents

In the redacted version of a document, the confidential information is removed so that the public can view the rest of the document.

  • You are not required to file a redacted version of your sealed document until and unless the court directs you to do so.

  • A redacted version of a sealed document must say “REDACTED” on its cover, or first page if it has no cover.

Ex Parte Documents

An ex parte document is a sealed document provided only to the court and is sealed even from the other parties in the case.

  • To file a document ex parte as well as under seal, you must file a motion asking to file the document ex parte and under seal and serve this motion on all other case participants.

  • Do not serve the ex parte document on the other case participants.

  • An ex parte document must say “EX PARTE and UNDER SEAL” on its cover, or first page if it has no cover.

Sealed Cases

If you want a case that was fully sealed in the lower court to remain fully sealed in this court, you must file a motion to continue the seal within 21 days after the notice of appeal is filed.

  • Use the “Motion to File or Maintain Case Under Seal” filing type for a motion to maintain a case under seal.

If sealing the case is required by a statute or procedural rule, instead of filing a motion, you must file a Notice of Sealing with a copy of the statute or procedural rule within 21 days after the notice of appeal is filed.

  • Use the “Notice to Maintain Case Under Seal” filing type for a notice to maintain a case under seal.

Relevant Rules and Orders

FAQs

Service and Access

Yes. Documents submitted under seal are not available electronically to anyone outside the court, including a motion to seal. You must serve your motion or notice to file under seal and accompanying documents by mail, or by email if the other counsel/parties are registered for electronic filing or have otherwise agreed to service by email. Use Form 15 for your certificate of service.

Sealed documents must be filed electronically and will remain under seal until the court resolves the motion to seal or notice of intent to unseal. Sealed materials are electronically viewable only by court personnel; neither the parties nor the public has access to sealed filings. If the entire case is under seal, individual filings are not submitted under seal, and the parties, but not the public, will also have electronic access to the filings.

Sealed Excerpts of Record, Physical Exhibits, and Briefs

Separate all sealed excerpts from your non-sealed excerpts into a final volume(s) of excerpts that contains only sealed documents. The pagination and volume number of the sealed volume must follow consecutively from the preceding non-sealed volume. Like the non-sealed excerpts, the documents in the sealed volume should be arranged in reverse chronological order (newest first). Because your excerpts will consist of more than a single volume of excerpts, if this is the first set of excerpts filed in the case, Volume 1 must consist of all decisions being appealed, reviewed, or challenged, and nothing else, per Circuit Rule 30-1.4(a). Place all other non-sealed documents in a subsequent volume or volumes of the excerpts in the appropriate locations required by Circuit Rule 30-1.4 (all documents should be in reverse chronological order except the notice of appeal, which must be placed with the lower court docket sheet at the end of the last non-sealed volume). Additionally, the table of contents of the excerpts must be formatted as a separate Index Volume pursuant to Circuit Rule 30-1.5(a).

No, when filing the first set of excerpts in a case, Volume 1 must include only the decisions being appealed, reviewed, or challenged. All other non-sealed material must be in Volume 2, and Volume 3 must include the sealed material. If you are filing the first set of excerpts in the case and have sealed materials, you will have a minimum of three volumes.

No. The presentence report, attachments to the report, and any sealed sentencing memoranda cannot be included in the excerpts. Instead, they must be filed separately using the “Presentence Report Under Seal” filing type. No notice of sealing is needed for these documents.

Divide the sealed portions of the excerpts into multiple, sequential volumes of no more than 300 pages, continuing the pagination and volume numbering from the preceding volumes of excerpts.

If only a portion of the decisions that would normally be in Volume 1 is sealed, place any sealed decision in the final, sealed volume of excerpts. If the entire contents of Volume 1 (that is, all decisions being appealed) are sealed, file Volume 1 as a sealed volume; you may also have an additional sealed, final volume of excerpts containing other sealed portions of the excerpts.

In addition to filing a motion to transmit a physical exhibit pursuant to Circuit Rule 27-14, you must also file a motion to seal, notice of sealing, or notice of intent to unseal pursuant to Circuit Rule 27-13.

No. A motion to seal documents does not stay briefing. You may, however, also request that briefing be stayed or extended and explain why it is warranted.

No. You should request to seal a brief only if it discloses confidential information contained in sealed materials. The court’s preference is to seal as few documents as possible.

If redaction is possible, the court will direct you to file a redacted version of the document in the court’s order that responds to the motion to seal.

Motions to Seal and Notices

Yes. However, note that this court will not seal based solely on a stipulation and there is a strong presumption in favor of keeping all documents in the public record. Your argument must be based on continuing specific and concrete harms that warrant continued sealing on appeal.

File a motion to seal is you want to file or maintain a document under seal, even if the district court ordered that document sealed, unless sealing is required by a statute or procedural rule. If there is a statute or rule requiring the seal, file a Notice of Sealing with a copy of the statute or rule.

If the documents were sealed by the district court and you do not want to file a motion to file them under seal in this court, submit those documents provisionally under seal with a Notice of Intent to Unseal using the “Notice of Intent to Unseal and Document Submitted Provisionally Under Seal” filing type. Any other party then has 21 days to file a motion to maintain the seal. If no other party files such a motion, this court will unseal the documents. If the documents are part of your excerpts of record, submit them in a separate, final volume as if you were filing them under seal.

If the motion itself needs to remain sealed for any reason, the motion must explicitly request that relief and explain why. Otherwise, the motion will be unsealed when the court decides the motion.

No. In the rare instance where an entire case is sealed, you do not need to file a motion or notice to seal specific documents.

No. Although the court will entertain a late motion if necessary, do not wait until the day of the hearing. File a motion and contact the court immediately to advise the courtroom deputy of the late filing of the motion. The motion should explain the untimely filing as well as the need for a closed argument. Remember that motions in calendared cases must include the information noted in Circuit Rule 25-4.

The court will notify you of any filing deficiencies, including the failure to include a motion or notice. The submitted materials will be maintained provisionally under seal until you have had an opportunity to correct those deficiencies.

Last updated May 6, 2026