How Some States Are Now Changing The Law So Divorce Records Be Sealed From The Public
In the past, everything that occurred in a courtroom were to be open as public record and the details could be found out or read by anyone who wished to know about those details. This has been changing over the years with particular attention to high profile divorce cases. People that are famous are now asking from their Las Vegas divorce attorney to have their court details of their divorce sealed to the public on the basis of being concerned about identity theft. A Las Vegas divorce lawyer often tries|usually attempts} to protect the information of their well known clients to be hidden by the public for different reasons and some states do this while others don’t .
With so many famous people having no privacy with the onslaught of paparazzi cameras following their every move, the one thing they may wish was kept private from the rest of the world are the details of their divorce which usually has details of them personally in addition to all of the financial information . Lawyers that fight plead the First Amendment argument where the public is permitted access to all public records, even those of celebrities and why should the standards be one way for the average American while another way for a celebrity .
This public access to detailed information found in divorce proceedings has been used by politicians running against another politician for office . They discover the fact that the person they are running against was arrested for hiring a prostitute and commited adultery on his wife and used that information for the public to know in a campaign regarding if that candidate is trustworthy or not. Other examples may be of campaign workers discovering that their opposition had some illegal financial handlings about them that was mentioned in their divorce proceedings. This also may been used in smear campaigns. Many politicians are now asking that their divorce details be sealed from the public for just this purpose] .
Another group of people that wish to have their divorce information not to be released to the public may be large business owners who genral Electric, Jack Welch. His wife, Jane disclosed that GE gave him over 2.5 million dollars in additional unreported financial perks like a luxury Manhaattan apartment and NBA game tickets. Once these details was made public, Welch rapidly settled his divorce to not have a bad image made even more public .
Some states have now mandated that all divorce cases made to be sealed such as the state of New York that closes all records for 100 years, no matter if you are well known or not. Other states like California and New Hampshire have followed suit by doing it also on a case to case situation . As with more controversial subjects, there are opposing sides to it that feel strongly for and against it. That is why having a strong divorce attorney in your corner is important to what you wish to get from your divorce settlement.
