GENERAL ORDER No 59
ELECTRONIC AVAILABILITY
OF TRANSCRIPTS OF COURT PROCEEDINGS
Pursuant to the requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002 and in accordance with the policy
adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States (the “Conference”) in September 2007, transcripts
of proceedings before United States District Judges and Magistrate Judges in the Northern District of
California that are filed with the Court shall also be filed in electronic format. The Court will follow
Conference policy as to when such transcripts will be electronically available to the public as delineated
below. The Court will also follow the requirements of the E-Government Act relating to the redaction of
personal identification information from transcripts before they are made electronically available to the
general public as further delineated below. That policy, as delineated below, establishes a procedure for
counsel to request the redaction from the transcript of specific personal data identifiers before the
transcript is made electronically available to the general public. The personal identifiers that must be
redacted are as follows: social security numbers; financial account numbers; names of minor children;
dates of birth; and, home addresses of individuals.
1.
Any transcript of a proceeding filed on or after May 15, 2008 shall be electronically filed
through the Court’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system. Any
transcript of a sealed proceeding shall be filed in accordance with whatever procedure is
in effect for the filing of sealed documents at the time of filing.
2.
For the first 90 days after the transcript is electronically filed, access to the transcript in
CM/ECF will be restricted to (a) court staff; (b) public terminal users; (c) attorneys of
record or parties who have purchased the transcript from the court reporter or
transcriber; and (d) other persons as directed by the court.
3.
The Clerk shall provide to all parties electronic notice of the filing and of the redaction
requirements.