Discovery Not Automatically Available to the Public

Scott Graham of The Recorder reported that documents filed with a court in civil litigation are not automatically available to the public. In a unanimous panel lead by Justice Wendy Duffy, the Sixth District Court of Appeal ruled that a trial judge erred by unsealing e-mails, spreadsheets and other discovery appended to a shareholder complaint.

"Discovery is not automatically submitted 'as a basis for adjudication' — and thus does not perforce become accessible to the public — simply by virtue of it becoming a part of the court file," Duffy wrote in Mercury Interactive Corp. v. Klein, H031175 (.pdf). She concluded that the documents must be submitted "to the trial court for its consideration in deciding a substantive matter in that action."