Have your say on government e-petitions

Introduce a cooling off period for public access to sensitive court documents

Submitted by Liam Macklin on Monday 6th October 2025

Published on Friday 21st November 2025

Current status: Open

Open until: Thursday 21st May 2026

Current Signatures: 17
(count is updated approximately hourly)

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

Access ~ case ~ court case ~ Courts ~ Create ~ Crime ~ Families ~ Media ~ Minimum ~ month ~ Profiteering ~ Responsible ~ Seek

Petition Action

Introduce a cooling off period for public access to sensitive court documents

Petition Details

Set a legal minimum cooling off period for sensitive information used in court, so families impacted by serious crimes aren't retraumatized for media profit shortly after crimes & court cases.

Additional Information

As little as a few months after sentencing, and against the families wishes, media studios can create content based on the case. We believe the rules on access to public court records should protect families from premature exposure. Those responsible for crimes may seek recognition, and we feel the media can give them exactly that. We want to stop this from happening and to protect families in these circumstances.


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