ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 484
(By Senator Plymale)
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[Introduced February 21, 1994;
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-seven, article two, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to domestic relations; divorce, annulment and separate maintenance; and confidentiality of domestic relations court files.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-seven, article two, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty- one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 2. DIVORCE, ANNULMENT AND SEPARATE MAINTENANCE.

§48-2-27. Confidentiality of domestic relations court files.

All orders in domestic relations cases entered in the civil order books by circuit clerks are public records. For purposes of this section, domestic relations cases shall include actions for divorce, annulment, separate maintenance, paternity, childsupport, custody, visitation, actions brought under the provisions of the uniform reciprocal enforcement of support act and petitions for writs of habeas corpus wherein the issue is child custody.
Upon the filing of a domestic relations case, all pleadings, exhibits or other documents contained in the court file shall be considered confidential and not open for public inspection either during the pendency of the case or after the case is closed.
When sensitive information has been disclosed in a hearing, a circuit judge or family law master may, sua sponte or upon motion of a party, order such information sealed in the court file. Sealed documents or court files shall only be opened by order of a circuit judge or family law master: Provided, That, in any case pending before a family law master, the master may open and inspect the contents of the court file.
The parties or their designee, their attorney, or any person who has standing to modify or enforce a support order, shall have the right to examine and copy any document in a confidential court file which has not been sealed by order of a circuit judge or family law master.