L.A. Daily Journal Tries to Seal Its Records in Case

The Los Angeles Daily Journal prides itself on being a champion for public access to court records--except when it comes to its own records.

The legal newspaper recently had to turn over financial records to a former competitor suing the paper for allegedly driving him out of business. So what did the Daily Journal do next? It asked a federal judge to seal all company records in the case.

The Journal’s attorneys say the documents, in a case filed by Jeff Barge, former publisher of the now-defunct Washington Law, are “confidential business information.” Defendants in similar cases routinely ask judges to impose such “protective orders,” the attorneys say.

Not true, says Magistrate Judge Robert J. Groh Jr. in a stinging denial of the secrecy request.

“The Daily Journal seeks the ability to spread a cloak of secrecy over as much of this litigation as possible--a curious position for a newspaper to take in an age where the institutional press has been the most aggressive advocate for opening court proceedings and records to the public.”

Last month, the Daily Journal successfully fought Los Angeles County’s attempt to seal the federal suit of a man who says social workers caused the deaths of his two young children.

And earlier this year, the paper joined a coalition of media groups fighting Merrill Lynch & Co., which wants to seal 9,500 pages of testimony taken during a grand jury investigation into Orange County’s bankruptcy. (An appeals court sided with the media groups, but the California Supreme Court has decided to review that decision.)

An attorney for the Daily Journal did not return telephone calls.

The newspaper is embroiled in three separate suits accusing it of offering advertisers bargain-basement prices to drive its competitors out of business.

One such suit filed by Metropolitan News Co. is being tried in Los Angeles County Superior Court.