Ala. Lawyers’ Private Data Exposed in Court Documents, Researcher Says
Lawyers submitting briefs to federal courts in Alabama routinely sign the documents with their Social Security numbers, one of several ways that private data is exposed in court documents, according to a researcher whose organization analyzed publicly available documents in 32 districts.
The researcher, Carl Malamud, has recounted his concerns about Alabama and several other federal courts in a letter (PDF) to the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, Legal Blog Watch reports. Malamud gave the Middle District of Alabama a D for failing to protect privacy and gave two courts an F: the Court of Federal Claims and the District of Northern Mariana Islands.
Malamud’s group, Public.Resource.Org, examined 2.7 million files and found 1,669 that contained Social Security numbers and other personal information, he writes in the letter. He mentioned the Alabama briefs signed with Social Security numbers as one of several “horror stories I encountered that have kept me up nights.”
“In the District of Alabama, lawyers seem to feel a need to sign briefs with their Social Security numbers, and the court consistently exposes the Social Security numbers and birth dates of police officers, state employees, and even court administrators,” Malamud wrote.
In another case in the District of Columbia, he wrote, a lawyer who claimed he was not paid in a timely fashion by district schools listed “page after page of the names, home addresses, birth dates, and psychological issues for countless minors he saw.” In other filings, the Internal Revenue Service fails to redact tax returns, Malamud wrote.
Other courts getting Ds included the District of Alaska, the Middle District of Alabama, the Central District of Illinois, the District of Maryland, the Southern District of Ohio, the Western District of Pennsylvania, the District of Puerto Rico, the District of Rhode Island and the Eastern District of Virginia.
Getting an A-plus was the Southern District of Texas.
Malamud founded Public.Resource.Org, an organization advocating public access to legal information. His work led him to become concerned about the exposure of private information in court filings, according to Legal Blog Watch.
