[WSBAPT] Sealing Court Documents

[Andrekita Silva]

Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

May 20, 2026

Amy,

So long as a court had jurisdiction over the case, it should not matter 
that the case has been concluded and/ or dismissed. You would file your 
motion in the same court, same case number. You must give notice to all 
parties.

The sealing of cases is guided by GR 15.  There are forms available on 
the state court website. I don't think they are mandatory but are a good 
guide. The motion is All Civil 050 and the proposed Order is All Civil 
052. Basically, you must show that your privacy rights outweigh the 
public interest in having access to the record.

There is a preference to seal or to redact only what is necessary- so 
redaction of parts of a declaration vs. an entire declaration. The 
mandatory form refers to Seattle Times v. Ishikawa, but I would 
encourage you to try to find cases more similar to yours for examples of 
when the court was or was not persuaded.

I have only twice asked the court to seal a file or portions of a file. 
They were both family law matters and in one case, there were unfounded 
allegations of sexual abuse (that were actually investigated by law 
enforcement.) That case went on for quite awhile and the father's 
relationship with the youngest child that was purportedly molested was 
fairly damaged. My client got normal visitation with the older two 
children but only access in counseling to the youngest. That was in King 
County and the court sealed portions of that file.

In the other, the wife made very extreme and unsavory allegations 
implying that their had been sexual molestation of the children. The 
allegations were never investigated and/ or reported to CPS or law 
enforcement. In the end, my client had a very normal parenting plan with 
him being the non-primary parent. That was in Snohomish County and the 
court denied my client's motion to seal.

Andrekita Silva
Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
206-224-8288
ak at seattle-silvalaw.com

On 2026/05/20 08:31 AM, Amy Goertz wrote:

> Good Morning Listers -
> 
> My neighbor was a participant (witness?) in a Spokane County custody
> dispute between her brother and his ex. Neighbor and several family
> members submitted responses to the ugly allegations made against both
> parties. Eventually, the case was dropped or otherwise dismissed.
> 
> Neighbor now wishes to have the file or witness statements sealed so
> that the public cannot read or search for the information.
> 
> Is this possible or would this need to have been done at the time?
> 
> If so, is there anyone to refer her to that might be able to help with
> this?
> 
> Amy
> 
> _Amy J. Goertz, J.D._
> _Goertz & Lambrecht PLLC_
> 
> amyjgoertz at icloud.com
> 
> 1.888.926.2607 phone
> 1.877.684.1627 fax
> 
> Address for correspondence:
> 2829 S. Grand Blvd., Suite 303
> Spokane, WA 99203
> 
> Additional office locations:
> 510 Bell Street
> Edmonds, WA 98020
> 
> Goertz & Lambrecht PLLC
> www.goertzlambrecht.com [1] [1 [2]]
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://www.goertzlambrecht.com/
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Links:
------
[1] http://www.goertzlambrecht.com
[2] http://www.goertzlambrecht.com/
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