Sealed lawsuits

Spurred by a February investigative series in which the Review-Journal revealed that Clark County judges had hidden more than 100 lawsuits from public scrutiny over the past seven years, the Nevada Supreme Court is creating a blue-ribbon panel to study public access to court records.

Chief Justice Bill Maupin said in a statement released Wednesday that the new commission “will examine a number of issues involving access to court records and the need to balance public access with critical private interests.”

The commission will be chaired by Washoe County District Judge Brent Adams, a former journalist. Las Vegas attorney Don Campbell, who has represented the Review-Journal in First Amendment cases, also was named to the panel. Other members of the media and the courts will serve on the commission.

This is an encouraging development. Already, the Assembly Judiciary Committee has introduced legislation that would strictly limit judges’ ability to seal cases before them. Assembly Bill 519 would prevent judges from sealing a court record unless the details of a case would hurt the “public interest” or risk public safety. Judges also would be required to hold a public hearing, during which the public would be allowed to present evidence, to consider the merits of sealing a particular case.

Nevada judges currently observe a dubious precedent, set by the state Supreme Court in the 1995 Whitehead v. Judicial Discipline Commission decision, that gives them carte blanche in making all parts of litigation secret. If a judge so desires, the public can never learn the parties in the lawsuit, the outcome or the name of the judge who sealed the case.

Regardless of that power, the Review-Journal investigation determined that most litigants in cases sealed since 2000 were wealthy or had great influence in business, politics and the courts. Essentially, our judges — elected to be independent, objective and beyond reproach — are more than willing to help the powerful avoid public embarrassment. And in the process, they’re making sure the public will never know whether their courts are dispensing justice in a fair, even-handed manner.

Chief Justice Maupin deserves credit for taking a step toward righting the wrongs of some of his predecessors on the court, who opened the door to abuse of judicial powers. And the Legislature should move Assembly Bill 519 toward passage.

The public has a right to access the functions of the governments their taxes support. The shielding of hearings and documents from public scrutiny cannot go on unchecked.