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Appropriate Separation of Documents and Use of Filing Codes in the Minnesota District Court eFile and eServe (eFS) System

Posted: Friday, February 17, 2017

Every person who files documents with the eFS system is responsible for separating public documents from non-public documents, and designating the documents as public, confidential or sealed upon filing.  Non-public documents, as outlined in Rule 4 of the Rules of Public Access and the Access to Case Records Table, should be separated and submitted as separate documents using specific filing codes.  Two common examples of non-public documents are medical records and law enforcement reports filed with the court.  Public documents may quote directly from non-public documents: for example, a public memorandum may quote directly from an individual’s medical records, even though the medical records themselves remain non-public.
 
Use of specific filing codes for attachments containing non-public case records will ensure those records remain secure and the publicdocuments are publicly accessible.  Many filing codes are only available in certain case categories (civil, criminal, etc.)  The eFS system will only allow filers to select filing codes available for the case they are filing into.  The eFS system has appropriate filing codes for all commonly‑filed court documents.
 
Please refer to the Public vs. Non-Public Information section (pages 14-17) of the Minnesota District Court Registered User Guide for Electronic Filing for additional information about the differences between public and non-public documents.  Appropriate separation of documents and use of proper filing codes are necessary not only to comply with court rules, but also to efficiently process court documents and to ensure the public has proper access to court records.