A bill moving through the Legislature would allow those with denied temporary restraining order petitions to write a request to keep their cases away from the public eye.
Currently, if a petition for a TRO is denied, the original petition document remains accessible to the public. The request holds personal information that could potentially be used against the survivor down the road.
Judge Dyan Medeiros, the senior family court judge of the First Circuit Court, believes the initial law that allowed TROs to be sealed was because there were cases of TROs being filed against the original survivor as an act of retaliation, which later impacted their livelihood.
“The petition includes information such as the names of the parties, if there are any children that were put on the petition, and then it would also include whatever the allegations of abuse are,” Medeiros said.
“In some cases, those documents were affecting their ability to obtain housing and work because all of that information remained accessible.”
House Bill 2090 would add the ability to make the request to seal a denied TRO petition in writing, versus the current mandate that requires the request to be made orally.
Medeiros said the current standard is virtually impossible because denied TROs never get a scheduled court hearing, meaning the original party does not have the opportunity to see a judge and make the request in person.
“If it's denied, you never get a hearing, so it’s completely impossible to make any oral request at any time at that stage of the proceedings,” she said.
“With this bill, the respondent can then submit their written motion saying please withhold the petition from public inspection, meaning somebody would not be able to just go to the courthouse or go online and actually look at the petition and allegations.”
The bill passed through all its committee hearings and was sent to Gov. Josh Green's desk.
