Certain Illinois Supreme Court Rule 138 provisions are postponed

In a recent blog article that I wrote, I explained how Rule 138 was going to be making significant changes as it relates to your security and your identity contained within court documents. Changes for adults included the removal of social security numbers and individual tax payer identification numbers and birth dates contained within public court documents. Although the majority of the changes under Rule 138 took effect last year, on July 1, 2013, certain provisions were to take effect on January 1, 2014. Although the portion of the rule that does not allow the use of social security numbers and individual tax payer identification numbers did take effect on July 1, 2013, the use of birth dates did not. Therefore, on January 1, 2014, this portion of the rule was to become effective. Additionally, for minors, the use of their full name was no longer allowed and on all public court documents, individuals were only to use a minor initials.
On December 24, 2013, there were several changes to Rule 138. Specifically, the use of birth dates for adults and for minors is now postponed until January 1, 2015. Additionally, the use of names of individuals known to be minors is also postponed until January 1, 2015. Along with these changes came a change to the document to be used when there is compelling reason or Order by the Court to use such personal information in a court document or public file. The recent change that did take effect on January 1, 2014, from the changes made on December 24, 2013, is the new document called, “Notice of Confidential Information Within Court Filing.” This document was previously referred to as a form titled, “Notice of Personal Identity Information Within Court Filing.” Once this document is filed they are no longer filed under “seal, ” they are now “impounded” by the clerk immediately upon filing.
So what does this all mean for you? For now, your birth date and minor child’s birth date and name are still allowed to be public information. If you have issues with this I would highly recommended that you ask your attorney to exclude such information. However, this will not eliminate the fact that opposing counsel may be allowed to incorporate such personal information into the public file.