Going through a divorce is a very personal process that is ideally kept between you and your divorcing spouse. While you will want to talk to close friends and family about the issues you are facing, you will not want the intimate details regarding your divorce to become public information.
However, generally speaking, court proceedings are public matters. This means that divorce records are usually accessible to anyone who wants to peruse them. If you’re a relatively private person with a small social circle, you may not be worried about other people trying to get access to this information. However, if you are a public figure or well-known in your community, you will probably have a higher incentive to keep these issues private.
How can I make my divorce records private?
It is possible to file divorce records under seal, but it is not a very common practice. To have your divorce records filed under seal, you must specifically request that the divorce courts seal them.
To present a convincing argument, you should show that there are specific benefits to having the information sealed. This is because in general courts want to ensure that all records are open to public scrutiny. If you want to be successful, you will need to show that the benefits of sealing the records outweigh the disadvantages that come with censoring public information.
If keeping your divorce private is extremely important to you, you should act early to ensure that you employ preventative techniques to avoid a public divorce.
