Today marks the start of our bi-weekly “The Right to Know” blog aimed at shining a light on public records: how to get them, what to do when you are denied and what to use them for. We’ll give particular attention in this blog to the obstacles government and other institutions place in the way of journalists seeking public records and how to overcome those obstacles.

THE RIGHT TO KNOW

One of the main missions of NECIR-BU is to provide journalists of all stripes – including students and citizen journalists – the tools to help research and write investigative stories. Among the most basic of these is knowing your state law on sealing court documents. A student of ours was recently denied a court record by a clerk without being told why, for how long and under what authority. We advised our student to immediately request the impoundment order from the court clerk – which in Massachusetts must be in writing, specify precisely why the case is being impounded and have a specific start and end date. The U.S. Supreme Court has made very clear that court records are public unless the court can specifically demonstrate why they should be closed. The impoundment order is without question a public record – no matter if you are at the district court level or your state’s highest court. Always ask the court clerk for it. If you think you are going to encounter a problem, you might need to educate the court staff on the law. Here is link you’ll need in Massachusetts:

To obtain an impoundment order in Massachusetts:  http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/source/mass/rules/tc/impoundment.html

We’ll be adding information on how to learn about impoundment rules in the other New England states to the Reporting Tools section of our website soon, so check there often for the latest updates.