State v. C.R.H.

The Rules of General Application authorize all Washington courts to seal criminal files under compelling circumstances, even in the absence of express statutory authority. Here, the trial court denied C.H.’s motion to seal his criminal file, relying on a statute requiring the court file of a class B juvenile offender to be open to public inspection for at least 10 years. Because the sealing of a criminal file is a procedural matter over which the court has inherent constitutional authority, the court rule authorizing sealing takes precedence over the conflicting statute. Therefore, we reverse…