Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 112.01
Subdivision 1. Materials Not Available to the Public. Materials that are filed in the trial court as "confidential" or "sealed" as defined in Rule 14 of the General Rules of Practice or in another manner that makes the materials unavailable to the public pursuant to statute, court rule, or trial court order, as well as any documents containing restricted identifiers as defined in Rule 11 of the General Rules of Practice, will remain under restricted access on appeal unless either the trial court or appellate court orders otherwise.
Subd. 2. Restriction of Access to Materials on Appeal. In situations where material in the record is confidential or trade-secret information that was not protected by a confidentiality order in the trial court, a party may move to have it filed under seal or otherwise restrict access to it on appeal. The motion must demonstrate the need for restricting access to the information and must set forth the efforts made to maintain the confidentiality of the information before the motion was brought.
Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 112.01
Rule 112 is a new rule intended to codify existing practices relating to handling confidential information on appeal. The rule applies to information that is filed under seal pursuant to a court order for sealing, as well as to other information that is not available to the public by operation of law.
The general policy of the Minnesota courts is that court records are accessible to any member of the public. See Rule 2, Minnesota Rules of Public Access to Records of the Judicial Branch, reprinted in Minnesota Rules of Court: State 1083 (West 2009 ed.). This general policy is carried forward by Rule 4 governing accessibility of case records. Rule 4, subdivision 2, specifies that restricting access to case records is governed by court rules. Many statutes limit access to particular case types. See Rule 4, Minnesota Rules of Public Access to Records of the Judicial Branch, Advisory Committee Comment-2005, reprinted in Minnesota Rules of Court: State 1085-86 (West 2009 ed.) (collecting citations to statutes). In addition, Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 11 requires filing of personal identifying information in a separate document filed under seal.
The majority of orders restricting access to court records in civil cases are entered pursuant to Minn. R. Civ. P. 26.03(e) (limiting persons present during discovery), (f) (allowing court to order sealing of depositions), and (h) (allowing court to order parties to file other documents under seal). See generally Minneapolis Star & Tribune v. Schumacher, 392 N.W.2d 197 (Minn. 1986). Criminal case protective orders are governed by Minn. R. Crim. P. 25. See generally Minneapolis Star & Tribune v. Kammeyer, 341 N.W.2d 550 (Minn. 1983); Nw. Publ'ns, Inc. v. Anderson, 259 N.W.2d 254 (Minn. 1977).
The most common situation relating to sealed materials on appeal relates to the continued protection of materials filed under seal in the trial court. Subdivision 1 of Rule 112.01 restates the general rule that documents that are sealed in the trial court will remain sealed on appeal.