Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Revisiting The Open Court Principle In An Era Of Online Publication: Questioning Presumptive Public Access To Parties’ And Witnesses’ Personal Information, Jane Bailey, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Openness Of cOurts can serve laudable purposes, not the least of which are transparency of government and court systems and access to justice, although accounts of the open court principle’s meaning, breadth, and underlying pur- poses have expanded and shifted over time.CurrentlyinCanadathe adherence to the principle has meant presumptive access to almost all aspects of court cases, including access to personal information about parties and witness- es, encompassing not only information contained in court judgments, but also information contained in documents led in court oces. Historically, not- withstanding this presumptive access, practical obscurity has protected much of this information, in …