The case might’ve made headlines if anyone had known about it.
When she was 15, the plaintiff said was sexually assaulted and emotionally abused by her guardian, a “high-ranking official” in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, according to court records.
In 2005, she sued her alleged abuser and the church, a multibillion-dollar institution and major Hawaii landowner, and the case was settled out of court shortly thereafter, court records show. It all stayed a secret for years.
It was one of more than 600 civil cases the state court system marked as “confidential” between 2005 and 2022, according to the Hawaii State Judiciary.
Cases with this designation are entirely hidden from public view. Unlike the vast majority of lawsuits, the identities of the parties, their attorneys and the judge; the list of events in the case known as the docket; and all case records are entirely secret. Even the records explaining why the cases are sealed are – you guessed it – sealed.
Members of the public have no way of knowing the cases even exist.
Such cases represent fewer than 1% of all civil cases filed in Hawaii courts, according to the Judiciary. But the secrecy means that a select few get to resolve their legal disputes in private, keeping potentially embarrassing allegations out of the public eye. This is sometimes done without any documented justification.
It also robs the community of the opportunity to learn about issues that may be of public importance. The cases may...
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