Ninth Circuit Vacates Order to Seal Records in Chrysler Defect Case

The Ninth Circuit yesterday overturned an order to seal court records in a case involving an alleged automobile safety defect.  The Center for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Group, LLC, No. 15-55084 (9th Cir. Jan. 11, 2016). 

From the summary prepared by the court’s staff:

The panel vacated the district court’s order denying The Center for Auto Safety’s motions to intervene and unseal documents filed to support and oppose a motion for preliminary injunction in a putative class action between Chrysler Group, LLC and certain named plaintiffs, and remanded for further proceedings.

. . .

The panel presumed that the instant motion for preliminary injunction was technically nondispositive.  The panel held that public access to filed motions and their attachments did not depend on whether the motion was technically “dispositive;” but rather, public access turned on whether the motion was more than tangentially related to the merits of the case.  The panel concluded that plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction was more than tangentially related to the merits.  The panel remanded for the district court to consider the documents under the compelling reasons standard.

The case is discussed on the Public Justice blog in a post by Jennifer Bennett, who argued the case for the intervenor, The Center for Auto Safety. 

Hat tip: Paul Bland, Shawn Shaughnessy