Given that we've devoted a good deal of coverage to redaction requests in the last few months, I thought it might be useful to present a brief primer on the procedure for actually requesting redactions to a transcript in the District of Delaware.
This procedure cannot be found in either either the local rules or the Court's CM/ECF procedures. Instead, it comes from the Court's "Policy on the Electronic Availability of Transcripts of Court Proceedings."
Under this policy the process begins when the court reporter dockets the transcript, which looks like this:
After that, things get a bit murky.
So I Have 21 Days to Request Redactions?
First off, that 21-day deadline ("Redaction Request Due 3/22") is actually the second step in the process of requesting redactions. Under the policy, you first have to file a "Notice of Intent to Redact" which is due just seven days after the notice above hits the docket.
Further, that 21-day deadline for "requesting redactions" actually only explicitly applies to "the redaction of [] specific personal data identifiers" such as social security numbers, and dates of birth—i.e., probably not the sort of information your average patent litigator is trying to redact.
So How Do I Request Redactions, and What's the Deadline?
Well the policy is clear that "Additional Redactions" (i.e., anything other than personal identifiers and the other listed information) must be requested by filing a "Motion for Redaction of Electronic Transcript." As we've covered previously this motion should be fairly in-depth and should include a declaration explaining the need for the redactions.
Exactly when it's due is a tougher question. The policy is clear that the transcript will be released into the wild 90 days after it hits the docket, so moving before then is definitely a good idea. In the absence of another date, however, I most commonly see these filed within the 21-day deadline for redacting personal information. On the other hand, I haven't seen any cases actually rejecting motions filed after this deadline as untimely.
So now you know how to request redactions to a transcript—now all you have to do is win that motion.
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