The Family Court of the State of Delaware recently announced that it will make opinions available on the Delaware Judiciary website. The September 15th announcement of this significant policy change states:
As of today, written decisions from the Family Court of the State of Delaware will be available on the Delaware Judiciary's website. The first opinion was published today and can be found on the opinions page at http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/. The publishing of decisions on the Delaware Judiciary's website will bring greater awareness and understanding of the Family Court and family law to the public and the litigants that come before the court. Not every Family Court opinion will be published online, but the discretion will be left to the judge or commissioner to determine if the decision involves a novel point of law or is of interest or importance to the public.
For Family Court decisions, the names of the parties and other confidential information will be redacted and initials or pseudonyms will be used following the practice established by the Delaware Supreme Court when publishing Supreme Court opinions related to Family Court. The names of the parties and other confidential information are redacted to protect the privacy of the parties as required by Delaware law.
"We believe this process appropriately balances the need for transparency with the need to maintain the privacy of parties in Family Court, as mandated by state law," said Family Court Chief Judge Michael K. Newell.
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