Lawyers need to do a better job guarding sensitive information.

Some Florida lawyers are still not complying with a Rule of Judicial Administration intended to minimize the amount of sensitive personal information contained in court filings.

A recent Florida Bar poll of lawyers and judges showed that while most thought that the majority of attorneys were complying with RJA 2.425 (Minimization of the Filing of Sensitive Information), about a third of those responding said they knew of instances where sensitive information had been filed.

One problem is that attorneys may not understand the interplay between RJA 2.420 (Public Access to Judicial Branch Records) and 2.425, according to Rules of Judicial Administration Committee member Paul Regensdorf, who helped write both rules.

"The information that is confidential is covered by Rule 2.420. That's information that you just flat out cannot put in a court file unless there's a specific exemption," Regensdorf said, noting that attorneys are required to file a Notice of Confidential Information Within Court Filing, telling the clerk when information covered by Rule 2.420 is in a document so the clerk can remove it from the public view.

"Rule 2.425 is sort of Rule 2.420 light. It's all of the information that legally you can put in the court file. There's no statute that says you can't, but there's also no good reason that you should," he said.

Committee member Murray Silverstein said that clerks and attorneys work together to see that confidential information under Rule 2.420 is kept out of public records. But the limitation of sensitive information defined by Rule 2.425, "is a lawyer initiative that the lawyer has to comply with."

He noted that when lawyers under RJA 2.505 certify that a document is properly filed, "you're also confirming that you comply with 2.420 and 2.425."

Rule 2.420 covers 20 categories of information that are automatically kept from public view, including Social Security numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, public health records about sexually transmitted diseases, Baker Act clinical records, records related to dependency, parental rights, child abuse and other matters covered by F.S. Ch. 39, adoption records, and estate inventories and accountings, among other information.

That rule also sets up a procedure for lawyers to petition to keep confidential other information that might be injurious to a party but isn't automatically exempt.

Rule 2.425 seeks to minimize the filing of sensitive information that could cause problems...