eService Center - Administrative Office of the Courts

What is the July 1, 2006, changes to GR 15 and GR 22 regarding destruction and sealing of court records and access to family law court records?

On July 1, 2006, revisions took effect for GR 15: Destruction and Sealing of Court Records and GR 22: Access to Family Law Court Records.

The revisions to GR 15 include many changes to court practices relating to destruction, sealing, and redacting of court records, and to vacation of convictions. 

The revisions to GR 22 have added guardianship cases under Title 11 (Probate and trust law), chapter 73.36 RCW (Uniform veterans' guardianship act), and chapter 74.34 RCW (Abuse of vulnerable Adults) to the case types covered by the rule. Also, additional court records may be considered confidential and not accessible to the public without court order.

Related changes to JIS and SCOMIS are limited to the public indexes.  See the attachment at the bottom of this answer for illustrations of the following changes:

• State Name Case Index (SNCI) and Court Name Case Index (CNCI) screens:
  • If ONE conviction for a case is vacated AND the case is sealed on JIS, the Status, Party, and Date information is obscured and replaced with the word VACATED.
  • If one of the final guilty, vacated, or bail forfeiture charges involved domestic violence (DV), the notation DV also displays.
  • The Seal Status column indicates whether the case is sealed to a No Access (SNA) or Limited Access (SAC) level.
• SCOMIS Search Index screen:
  • If ONE conviction for a case is vacated AND the case is sealed on JIS, the Connection, Date, and Original Charge information is obscured and replaced with the words SEALED and VACATED.
  • If one of the final guilty, vacated, or bail forfeiture charges involved domestic violence, the notation DV also displays.
• SCOMIS Case Index Report:
  • If ONE conviction for a case is vacated AND the case is sealed on JIS, the title and charge/class information are obscured and replaced with the word VACATED.
  • If one of the final guilty, vacated, or bail forfeiture charges involved domestic violence, the notation DV also displays. 

New SCOMIS docket codes related to GR 15 and GR 22 will be e-mailed to superior courts.

The following chapters in the online manuals have been updated:

• Sealed Cases.
• Search for Case Indexes.
• Finding and Judgment Processing (CLJ).
• SCOMIS Commands/Using the Search Index Command.
• SCOMIS Docket Codes.

Documentation is available in the Online Manuals for:

• Sealed Cases.
• Vacation of Conviction (CLJ).
• Vacating Convictions (Superior Courts).
• Expunge Party (EXP) Screen (CLJ).
• Expunge a Party (Superior Courts).

A Pattern Form is available from the Court Forms page of the Washington Courts Web site:

• Vulnerable Adult Protection Order.

Note that there is no statutory authority for expungement of adult criminal cases.  GR 15 states that an order to expunge should be treated as an order to destroy and that the "court shall not order the destruction of any court record unless expressly permitted by statute."

If you have questions or concerns about the changes above, please use eService Center and select Topic 3. Case Management. Enter your question or request in the Question Data area and click Submit to AOC.

A copy of this message was sent via ListServ on June 26, 2006, to County Clerks, District and Municipal Court Administrators, and Site Coordinators.

RN id: 1607