Re: [legalxml-courtfiling] Information to be tagged for redaction

["John M. Greacen" <john@greacen.net>]

Ben -- Good comment.  I think the federal courts see their approach as a
short term solution.  It really doesn't do anyone any good to have only the
last four numbers of an account number if you are trying to figure out what
sort of claim to file in a bankruptcy.  Using tagged documents, you get to
have your cake and eat it, too.  For those who need the full information
(and are entitled to see it) it will be there.  For others, nothing will be
there - no numbers, no initials.  I know that is how the state court folk
are approaching it.

"Benjamin T. Wilson" wrote:

> FYI and for what it's worth -
> I did  a little googling, and New Mexico's federal court
> (http://www.nmcourt.fed.us/bkdocs/lackpriv.pdf), consistent with the
> Report of the Judicial Conference of the United States
> (http://www.privacy.uscourts.gov/Policy.htm) (that certain "personal
> data identifiers" - Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial
> account numbers and names of minor children- be modified or partially
> redacted by litigants), says the following regarding redaction:
> Redacting means the careful editing of a document to remove confidential
> material; on paper, the material is usually "blacked out" with a marker.
> Personal identifiers:
> a. Social Security numbers. If an individual’s social security number
> must be included in a pleading, only the last four digits of that number
> should be used.
> b. Names of minor children. If the involvement of a minor child must be
> mentioned, only the initials of that child should be used.
> c. Dates of birth. If an individual’s date of birth must be included in
> a pleading, only the year should be used.
> d. Financial account numbers. If financial account numbers are relevant,
> only the last four digits of these numbers should
> be used.
>
> However, as the web site for the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern
> District of California
> (http://www.caeb.uscourts.gov/data/pubnotices/not_re_privacy_elec_Avail.
> pdf) notes, until bankruptcy law/rules are amended, the full social
> security number / employer identification number is required in the
> title of the case (caption).
>
> I take this to mean that it is the responsibility of the attorney and
> litigants (and not the technology/XML) to redact personal data
> identifiers.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lewis, Diane [mailto:Diane.Lewis@usdoj.gov]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 8:18 PM
> To: Lin, Meng-chun; 'John M. Greacen'; 'Bergeron, Donald L. (LNG)';
> 'jik'; 'Larry Webster'; 'Mary Campbell McQueen'; 'Mohyeddin Abdulaziz';
> 'Robin Gibson'; 'Rolly Chambers'; 'Terrie Bousquin'; 'Eddie OBrien';
> 'Roger Winters'; 'Gregory W. Arnold'; 'Dr. Laurence Leff'; 'John
> Messing'; 'Allen Jensen'; 'Rory Perry'; 'Ron.Beach'; 'moira.rowley';
> 'Dwight R Daniels'; 'Ron Bowmaster'; 'Karl F. Best'; 'Benjamin T.
> Wilson'; 'Charles Gilliam'; 'aerts'; 'jeromeb'; 'tbrown'; 'tom.clarke';
> 'bruce.gitlin'; 'dagoodwi'; 'roger'; 'wjohnsto'; 'pkasselman';
> 'Catherine.Krause'; 'manoj'; 'gary.pinder'; 'gpoindexter'; 'dpowell';
> 'ssansom'; 'tjsmith'; 'steve.spohn'; 'steven.taylor'; 'kthotti';
> 'swood'; 'Mark S. Yuan'; 'Robert DeFilippis'; 'John Ruegg'; 'John
> McClure'; legalxml-courtfiling@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: RE: [legalxml-courtfiling] Information to be tagged for
> redaction
>
> John,
> i owe you a list of data elements that we have identified... don't think
> i was in Las Vegas when the list you provide was discussed...
> i know in Salt Lake City i promised a list that was identified initially
> from discussions with our DOJ/USAO ECF workgroup attorneys...  tomorrow
> 7/18 i will have our project legal advisor look over the list below and
> provide comment from Assistant US attorney (AUSA)perspective as well as
> our draft list of elements.   note that some US courts have already
> implemented redaction procedures both for paper and electronic data ..
> the wording is unclear as to what specific elements are not
> releasable...      as you can imagine the AUSAs have many concerns
> more tomorrow 7/18 on this topic... dl
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John M. Greacen [mailto:john@greacen.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 7:33 PM
> To: Lewis, Diane; Lin, Meng-chun; Bergeron, Donald L. (LNG); jik; Larry
> Webster; Mary Campbell McQueen; Mohyeddin Abdulaziz; Robin Gibson; Rolly
> Chambers; Terrie Bousquin; Eddie OBrien; Roger Winters; Gregory W.
> Arnold; Dr. Laurence Leff; John Messing; Allen Jensen; Rory Perry;
> Ron.Beach; moira.rowley; Dwight R Daniels; john; Ron Bowmaster; Karl F.
> Best; Benjamin T. Wilson; Charles Gilliam; aerts; jeromeb; tbrown;
> tom.clarke; bruce.gitlin; dagoodwi; roger; wjohnsto; pkasselman;
> Catherine.Krause; manoj; gary.pinder; gpoindexter; dpowell; ssansom;
> tjsmith; steve.spohn; steven.taylor; kthotti; swood; Mark S. Yuan;
> Robert DeFilippis; John Ruegg; John McClure; Court Filing List
> Subject: [legalxml-courtfiling] Information to be tagged for redaction
>
> In Las Vegas, Diane Lewis and I agreed to post a list of candidate data
> elements that could be included in the Court Document 1.1 specification
> for use in redacting information from court documents when they are made
> available to the public.
>
> The following is a list drawn from a work product developed by a
> committee of the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State
> Court Administrators on Public Access to Court Records.  The data
> elements are examples from the document of data that appears in court
> records that should not, in particular situations, be released to the
> public.  Hence, this would be an ideal application for XML tagging. Data
> could be present for some uses and suppressed for others, with an
> application looking for the particular tags associated with the
> information to be suppressed.  The data elements are:
>
> ? Name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, or place of
> employment and other contact information for victims (not including
> defendants) in domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, and civil
> protection order proceedings; ? Name, address, telephone number and
> other contact information for victims in criminal cases; ? Name,
> address, telephone number and other contact information for witnesses
> (other than law enforcement witnesses) in criminal, domestic violence,
> sexual assault, stalking, and civil protection order cases; ? Name,
> address or telephone number of informants in criminal cases; ? Name,
> address or telephone number of potential or sworn jurors in a criminal
> case; ? Social security number; ? Account number of specific assets,
> liabilities, accounts, credit cards, and PINs; ? Medical or mental
> health records, including examination, diagnosis, evaluation, or
> treatment records; ? Name and address of a minor child; ? Psychological
> evaluations of a party, for example regarding competency to stand trial;
> ? Child custody evaluations in family law or juvenile dependency (abuse
> and neglect) actions; ? Description or analysis of a person?s DNA or
> genetic material, or biometric identifiers; ? Proprietary business
> information such as trade secrets, customer lists, etc. ? Statements of
> disability (such as in applications for accommodations under the
> Americans with Disabilities Act); ? Address and telephone number of
> litigants in cases
>
> The CCJ/COSCA document also identifies document types that should be
> suppressible and photographs and physical evidence that should be
> suppressible.  In my view, the document types are handled by the
> Electronic Court Filing 1.1 specification which provides a
> confidentiality option for any document or data element.  I believe that
> photographs and physical evidence fall outside our purview, as do
> official court reporter notes.
>
> Diane, I invite your additional contributions.
>
> Mo, Rolly and John, I hope this proves helpful in following up on this
> issue from the Salt Lake meeting.  Of all the specific data element
> tagging that could be useful, this list of items to be tagged for
> possible redaction is -- in my personal view --of the highest current
> importance.
>
> --
> John M. Greacen
> Greacen Associates, LLC.
> 18 Fairly Road
> Santa Fe, NM  87507
> 505-471-0203
>
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--
John M. Greacen
Greacen Associates, LLC.
18 Fairly Road
Santa Fe, NM  87507
505-471-0203