Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Rapkin; Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. v. Florida Department of Financial Services
Insurers sought certiorari from an order that would have given public-records requestor-intervenors access to 878 pages of sealed records, plus full participation and discovery, before the trial court decided whether the records were exempt trade secrets. The First DCA held the order caused irreparable 'cat out of the bag' harm and departed from the essential requirements of law, quashing it and directing that exemption/trade-secret status be resolved first through a confidentiality-preserving in camera inspection or evidentiary hearing.
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Key facts
- Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. and Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. sought certiorari to prevent disclosure of 878 pages of sealed records to public-records requestor-intervenors pending determination of whether the records qualified as exempt trade secrets.
- The trial court ordered production of the sealed records and granted requestor-intervenors full participation and discovery rights before adjudicating the trade-secret exemption status.
- +2 more key facts with a free trial
Why it matters
This gives counsel a clean, citable roadmap for certiorari relief whenever a trial court orders disclosure of claimed trade secrets or confidential material before adjudicating the privilege or exemption — including in… — full analysis with a trial
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