New Requirements for Redaction of Private Information

In accordance with the Florida Supreme Court’s amendment to Rule of Judicial Administration 2.420, "the clerk will not be required to identify and designate information as confidential," in circuit civil, county civil, and small claims court documents.

Effective July 1, 2021, filers are solely responsible for ensuring any confidential information contained in filings for these cases is appropriately redacted or identified for redaction. A filer is anyone who submits official court documents to the Clerk's office in order to start or support a legal action.

All filers, including attorneys, legal professionals, and self-represented litigants are required to:

  1. File a Notice of Confidential Information Form in circuit civil, county civil, and small claims court cases when filing documents with information such as social security numbers, health records, bank account numbers, addresses of domestic violence victims, juvenile delinquency records, and other non-public information.
  2. Identify the precise location(s) of confidential information within the document, including each page number on which it appears, attachments, appendices, and exhibits.
  3. Identify the type of confidential information or provision that applies to the identified information.

The amended rule affects small claims, county civil, and most circuit civil court cases, except for Jimmy Ryce civil commitments, cases stemming from sexual assault, medical malpractice filings, and family law cases. These changes do not apply to juvenile, family, guardianship, probate, mental health, or criminal cases.

For more information, please call our office at (850) 606-4005.

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