Protecting your address and information in Probate and Family Court

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Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
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Sometimes, you need the Probate and Family Court to keep your information private so you can feel safe. This could include your contact information, papers in your case file, or your entire court file. If you need the court to keep this information private, you can ask the judge to “impound” it. You do this by filing a Motion to Impound.

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Is the information in my family court file private?

When you submit forms and papers in your Probate and Family Court case, a clerk approves your papers and puts them in your case file. Case files and court hearings are open to the public. Anyone can look at a case file. The information inside that file is not private.

But some papers are not public. They do not go in your case file. Papers that aren’t public are:

Sometimes, you need the court to keep other information or papers private so you can feel safe. You do this by filing a Motion to Impound.

What information can I ask to keep private (“impounded”)?

The information you ask to keep private must be information that might harm you if the other person in your case or the public can see it. This could be:

  • your home address, work address, or phone number.
  • parts of your case file with sensitive information, like financial documents and medical records. Or,
  • your entire court file, including all documents and information in the file.

The court can keep all this information from the public. It can also protect this information from court staff who do not need it to do their jobs. But the court can only keep some information from the other person in your case.

The court can protect the addresses where the other person might find you or your children, your phone number and email addresses. But the other person has the right to see all the other documents you give to the court. Even if the court impounds the documents so the public cannot see it, the other side can see documents like affidavits, financial documents, and medical records. The court can tell the other person that they cannot share this information with anyone else.

Courts use a special form for impounding information in 209A Restraining Order and 258E Harassment Protection Order cases. See Protecting Your Address and Information in 209A and 258E cases.

If you need to use a completely different address to be safe, you may need the Address Confidentiality Program.

How do I ask the court to keep my information private?

File a Motion to Impound and an Affidavit to support your motion to ask the judge to order the court to keep your information or documents private. See Forms.

Note

If your only case in Probate and Family Court is a 209A Restraining Order case, your address should already be kept private. But some judges will still ask you to file a Motion to Impound.

You must tell the judge why you need the court to keep your information private. Your reasons to keep any information private must be more than simply to protect your privacy. The reasons must show that you need the court to keep the information private so nobody can use it to harm you. If you need the judge to order the other person not to see your information, tell the judge in your motion and affidavit. 

Some reasons you may need to keep information private are:

  • To be safe. You will be in danger if someone else finds out where you live or work.
  • Information is too sensitive. The information in the file is too sensitive to be public. Sensitive information you may need to impound could be your medical or mental health history, or history of sexual abuse. Also, you may need to keep sensitive information about your child confidential. Sometimes you can have your entire file impounded.
  • You are staying in a domestic violence shelter. If you live in a domestic violence shelter, never reveal your physical address on public court forms.

Important

If you need to use a completely different address to be safe, you may need the Address Confidentiality Program.

When do I file my Motion to Impound?

You must file your motion to impound before you give the court any of the information you need to keep private.

If you need the court to impound any information in your complaint, like your address, phone number or email, file the Motion to Impound at the same time you file your complaint.

In a custody case, you may have medical records and other information about you, your child or the other side that you need to keep private. You can file a Motion to Impound for these documents before you give them to the court. Wait for the judge’s decision before you file anything, if you need to keep it private.

You can ask the court to impound information at any point in your case. But if you ask the court to impound it after you file:

  • The other side may have seen information about where to find you. And
  • The public could already have seen other information in your case file.

So you should always try to file a Motion to Impound before you file anything sensitive.

How do I file a Motion to Impound?

Every court handles this process differently. If this is the first time you are filing any papers in your court case, you will probably file your Motion to Impound at the same time that you file any other papers. Sometimes you see the judge right after you file your Motion to Impound. Other times, you file your Motion to Impound and the court contacts you afterwards to tell you what the next steps are.

To find out what will happen in your court:

  • Contact a Court Service Center by phone, Zoom, or in-person. 
  • Ask to talk to someone about filing a Motion to Impound.
  • Tell them about the motion you need to file.
  • Tell them if it is an emergency.
  • Ask:
    • "How do I file my motion?"
    • "What do I need to do to schedule a hearing on my motion?"
    • "Do I need to "serve" or give notice of the hearing to the other side?"

If you file your Motion to Impound at the same time that you file a complaint, do not write the information that you want to keep private, like your address or phone number, on any of the paperwork. Leave the spaces that ask for this information blank.

What happens after I file my Motion to Impound?

The court will have 1 or 2 hearings on your Motion to Impound.

The 1st hearing may take place on the same day you file the motion, before the other side knows you filed it. The court calls this an "ex-parte hearing."

If you get a hearing on the same day and the other person is not there, the court may schedule a 2nd hearing about 10 days later. Ask the judge or the courtroom clerk how the other person is going to be notified about the 2nd hearing. You might have to send court papers to them, or the court will do it. 

At the 2nd hearing, the person on the other side of your case gets a chance to object to your motion and explain why the court should not impound information.

Note

All hearings on family matters and restraining orders are open to the public and recorded. This includes hearings about Motions to Impound. In some extraordinary circumstances you can ask the judge to “close the courtroom” for the Motion to Impound hearing – then, only people who are a part of your case can be in the courtroom.

What do I tell the judge at the hearing about my Motion to Impound?

After you file your motion there will be a hearing. You must tell a judge the reasons you need to impound your contact information and/or other sensitive information.

These reasons might include:

  • There is a history of domestic violence and the other person has hurt you or threatened to hurt you or your children.
  • You moved to a new home to be safe and the other person doesn’t know where it is.
  • You are living in a domestic violence shelter and are not allowed to share the address because it would make you and other residents unsafe.
  • You changed your phone number or email address so the other person can not contact or harass you.
  • Sharing your personal information or documents would place you or your children at risk of harm from the other person.
What if the judge allows my Motion to Impound?

If the judge allows your motion to impound, they will make an “order of impoundment.” The order will say exactly what information the court will impound. This might be a piece of information, like your address, or the whole case file. The public cannot see anything that is impounded. The order may also say who else cannot see the impounded information. For example, the order may say the other side and their lawyer cannot see the impounded information.

Sometimes, the order will explain how the information will be impounded. For example, the order may say to put the information in an envelope and mark it “impounded.” The order may say to leave the information out, black it out, or white it out on documents that ask for this information. The court will keep the impounded materials, documents, and information separate from the rest of your case file.

If the judge allows your motion to impound your contact information:

  • They will ask for your contact information. Usually they have you put it on a special piece of paper.
  • The court will keep this impounded information private.

After the judge makes an order of impoundment, the clerk writes a note in the court record. The note says what kind of information the court has impounded.

After you know if the court will keep your contact information and addresses private, you can file the rest of the court papers and documents in your case.

After you know if the court will keep your other sensitive information private, ask the clerk to tell you what you need to do to file the impounded court papers and documents.

If your whole case file is impounded, the court keeps it in a separate place and you will be asked to show ID to see the file. Ask the clerk where to go when you need to look at your file.

Important: 

If a judge impounds your address,

  • Do not write your address on any documents you file.
  • If you file papers that have your contact information on them already, carefully “black out” or “white out” this information so no one can read it.
     
What if the judge does not allow my Motion to Impound?

If the judge does not impound information that would let the other side find you, you have to put that information on all the forms that ask for it.

If the judge does not impound sensitive documents, you need to balance their importance to your case with the risk that the public will see them. You may decide to risk the public seeing the documents. Or you may decide not to file these documents in your case.

Forms and samples

Motion to keep addresses private from the other side in your case

Blank Fillable Motion to Impound Address from Other Party in Probate and Family Court, Proposed Order, and Affidavit [PDF] 

Sample Motion to Impound New Address [PDF] 
In this sample the wife has moved to a new address that her husband does not know. She files a Motion to Impound her address in her divorce case.

Motion to keep sensitive information from the public

Blank Fillable Motion to Impound Documents and Information from Public and Court Staff [PDF]

Sample Motion to Impound Sensitive Information - Entire Case File [PDF]
In this sample the case involves the sexual abuse of a minor child. One parent filed a Motion to Impound the Entire File because it would be harmful to the child if any of the documents were available to the public.

Sample Motion to Impound Sensitive Information - Individual documents [PDF]
In this sample, a mother files a Motion to Impound because she wants to keep documents about their health history out of the public file.

Courts use a special form for impounding information in 209A Restraining Order and 258E Harassment Protection Order cases. See Protecting Your Address and Information in 209A and 258E cases.

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