Record sealing

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Record sealing is the process of making public records inaccessible to the public.

In many cases, a person with a sealed record gains the legal right to deny or not acknowledge anything to do with the arrest and the legal proceedings from the case itself.

Records are commonly sealed in a number of situations:

• Sealed birth records (typically after adoption or determination of paternity)
• Juvenile criminal records may be sealed
• Other types of cases involving juveniles may be sealed, anonymized, or pseudonymized ("impounded"); e.g., child sex offense or custody cases
• Cases using witness protection information may be partly sealed
• Cases involving trade secrets
• Cases involving state secrets