Farach v. Rivero
Defendants in a defamation suit sought certiorari review of an order denying their motion to unseal the plaintiff's sealed criminal arrest record, which they said was essential to a truth defense. The Third District dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction, holding that orders denying discovery are almost never reviewable by certiorari absent a showing of irreparable harm, and that petitioners had not shown they lacked other means of obtaining the information. In dicta, the court endorsed the view that sealing/expungement statutes do not convert historically true facts about an arrest into falsehoods for defamation purposes.
Key facts
- Defendants in a defamation suit sought certiorari review of an order denying their motion to unseal the plaintiff's sealed criminal arrest record, which they claimed was necessary to support a truth defense.
- The trial court denied the defendants' motion to unseal the sealed arrest record, and the defendants petitioned the Third District for certiorari review.
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Why it matters
The opinion gives Florida defamation defendants a persuasive statement that an expunged or sealed arrest record does not make a statement about the arrest false, aligning Florida with G.D. v. Kenny and Martin v. Hearst… — full analysis with a trial
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