## Facts

- During divorce proceedings between Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, the parties litigated issues involving child custody and visitation for their minor children.
- The dissolution matter drew intense media attention.
- Spears moved to seal the court file concerning issues in the dissolution matter surrounding child custody and visitation.
- Federline joined Spears’s motion to seal.
- The parties argued that public disclosure of the information they sought to seal, given the media attention, could threaten the children’s security and could cause the children extreme embarrassment as they grew older.
- The matter before the California Superior Court was the requested restriction on public access to custody- and visitation-related court records in the dissolution case.

## Issues

1. Whether the superior court could seal court records in a dissolution proceeding relating to child custody and visitation despite the general right of public access to court records.
2. Whether the asserted risks to the parties’ minor children (security and future embarrassment) could support sealing.
3. Whether any sealing order had to be limited to specific materials and no broader than necessary.

## Decision

- The court issued an order resolving Spears’s motion (joined by Federline) to seal the court file as to custody- and visitation-related matters.
- Publicly available summaries do not provide the order’s full text or specify the precise scope of any sealing or denial.

## Legal Principles

- Court records are generally open to the public, subject to limited exceptions.
- A court may seal records only upon findings that an interest overriding public access supports sealing and that disclosure would likely harm that interest.
- Any sealing must be narrowly tailored, and the court must consider whether less restrictive measures (such as redaction) would sufficiently protect the interest at stake.
- Protecting the safety and privacy of minor children may qualify as an interest supporting limits on access to certain custody- and visitation-related filings in appropriate circumstances.

## Conclusion

In *In re Britney Spears v. Kevin Federline*, the California Superior Court addressed a joint request by Spears and Federline to seal custody- and visitation-related records in their dissolution matter based on claimed risks to their minor children’s security and future embarrassment; available public summaries confirm the motion and the grounds asserted but do not disclose the detailed outcome or scope of the court’s order.


In re Britney Spears v. Kevin Federline, 2007 WL 2972292 (2007)