News Group Sues Geauga, Lake County Clerks of Court

December 25, 2025 by Allison Wilson

A national news organization is suing Geauga County Clerk of Courts Sheila Bevington and Lake County Clerk of Courts Carl DiFranco, alleging the clerks have failed to provide timely public access to newly filed civil complaints.

Courthouse News Service, a news outlet based in Pasadena, Calif. that reports on legal proceedings nationwide, filed a complaint Dec. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland, alleging its First Amendment right of access has been violated.

“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the press and public with a qualified right of access to new civil complaints,” said John Greiner, counsel for Courthouse News, in the complaint, adding, “Whether new civil complaints are paper-filed or e-filed, this right of access attaches on receipt, when a new filing is delivered to, or deposited with, the clerk.”

Historically, courts have made new civil lawsuits publicly available as they are received, a practice that has continued even as filing has largely shifted from paper to electronic systems, he said.

“(The clerks of court) restrict access to the e-filed civil complaints until court staff have finished a series of administrative steps commonly referred to as ‘processing.’ As a result, all newly e-filed civil complaints are effectively sealed upon receipt, with access commonly withheld for one to three days after filing,” he said.

When access to new civil complaints is restricted, “…the news they contain grows stale,” leaving the public uninformed about legal actions that have been taken, Greiner said.

“A delay of even one day means that by the time the complaint can be reported, the news of its filing has already been overtaken by the next day’s news and is less likely to ever come to the public’s attention,” he said.

The restrictions stem from both courts’ policies of barring access to newly e-filed civil complaints until they have been manually processed by court staff, Greiner said.

“The clerks impose a no-access-before-process policy on the press and public, by requiring review and acceptance before making a filing publicly available,” he said. “Without (the clerks’) no-access-before-processing policy, there would be no restriction and no delay. The restriction on access is unnecessary, as demonstrated by the federal and state courts across the country — including this court and other courts of common pleas in Ohio — that provide access to new civil complaints when they are received, before processing. Defendants are capable of providing on-receipt access. They have chosen not to.”

Courthouse News sent a letter to the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas June 3 requesting immediate access to new civil complaints and sent an email to the Lake County Court of Common Pleas June 30 stating the court was not in compliance with a Southern District of Ohio ruling directing the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to make newly filed, non-confidential civil complaints publicly available upon receipt, Greiner said.

He added since sending the letter and email, GCCCP has not removed its access restrictions and LCCCP has not provided same-day access to multiple civil complaints.

“Prior to restricting press and public access to court documents, a judge, not a clerk of courts, must ‘state findings or conclusions which justify nondisclosure to the public,’” he said, citing Federal Trade Commission vs. Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation. “(Clerks of court) are not permitted to make judicial decisions, rulings or findings and are, therefore, not capable of making new civil complaints confidential or sealing them. By restricting access to filings prior to processing, (the clerks of court) are sealing a document from public viewing without prior court order.”

Among other requests, Greiner asked the court to declare that the current policies of delaying access to new civil complaints until processing violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and to issue preliminary and permanent injunction barring both clerks from enforcing those policies.

Bevington declined to comment and DiFranco did not respond by press deadline.