Will Free Law Project remove sealed content from the RECAP Archive?
If sealed content is added to the RECAP Archive, we will generally remove it upon receipt of a valid sealing order or upon verifying that the item is removed from PACER.
A higher threshold for removal may exist for items that are in the news or that have received significant attention (in which case removal may serve little point).
Why does this happen?
This happens for a variety of reasons:
We offer a variety of protections, but they can fail due to human error.
A filer may forget to mark something as sealed when they add it to PACER, and we get it that way.
A filer may realize or learn after the fact that a document they uploaded to PACER revealed confidential information because of a bad redaction, information they missed, or other error.
Why don't you do this automatically?
There are about two billion documents in PACER, any of which can become sealed at any time, and there's no automatic way to check this except to verify each of them one by one.
We would love to collaborate with the courts on an automated system, but that hasn't happened yet.
What now?
To notify us that an item has been sealed, please provide details via the CourtListener contact form.
mike