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This was in response to my post asking for the details of an alleged custody case or other court case involving Pitt and/or Jolie.

Different Guest’s response suggests a misunderstanding of the court procedure and the meaning of “private judge.”

Private Judge does not mean Secret Judge. We do not have “secret judges” in the U.S. civil or criminal judicial system. Private judge just means privately paid by the parties as opposed to government paid.

If either Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt had taken legal action or if either has any legal action pending then we would all know it. That fact that a case was filed or is pending and that case number would be on the record and would not be sealed. You do not seal an entire case or the existence of the case in such matters. The parties can ask the presiding judge to seal certain documents or even hearings or certain testimony if they can convince the judge there are grounds to do so. Many times parties request the sealing of their financial documents for obvious reasons. But again you would know that they sealed financial records.

If the parties want to avail themselves of a private judge then after the case is filed they request the presiding judge to appoint a private judge. That formal request is on the the record. We would know about that. If the presiding judge (i.e., presiding over the case) decides to grant the request for the appointment of a private judge then s/he issues a formal order appointing a private judge. That order is part of the record and includes the name of the private judge. So if that happened we would all know when it happened and who the private judge is.

A private judge is required to follow the proper rules of civil procedure like regular judges in regular court and the events/hearings/rulings/etc of the case are still put on the record for the public to see. When a private judge issues his/her rulings those rulings are also filed on the record and you can read them.

Futhermore, any hearings or trials held by the private judge are required by California law to be open to the public. If anyone wanted to attend they would just have to ask. So nothing becomes secret just because you use a private judge. For the most part you hire a private judge to speed the process up, not to hide things. Now because hearings, etc. are not held at a courthouse then it may be harder to learn when hearings or other case related events are scheduled before a private judge and that alone can keep people away. But there is no way that a case involving Jolie or Pitt would stay quiet or “secret.”.

As for sealing case related matters, parties still have to file requests with the court to seal anything and state the grounds for such requests. So the public would also be able to view such requests – maybe not the grounds though. Potential embarrassment is rarely considered enough to get a sealing order.

The location of filing would make no difference. It would still be public and known by all.

In any event, if there had ever been or were currently any court cases involving Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie the public would know about it. So please no more of this “Brad filed papers,” “Angelina has lost custody” unless you can cite the case. This is why asking for details and facts (such as dates, names, places, lawyers involved) should be part of everyone’s discussion when confronted with gossip and given no corroboration or proof.

Sorry for the length but I thought some readers might be interested in facts and reality.

Well thank F for that! After a year or two of posting on Dlisted you don’t expect people to take what you say the wrong way seeing as we say whatever we damn well please over there and people just suck it up. I didn’t think you would have thought I was attacking you but I thought I better check considering all the brouhaha going on round here lately. I get misinterpreted so much on this board I feel like I need to hire a full-time interpreter! Geez, make an innocent snarky comment and it turns into a full on brawl! Bloomin Nora I swear the Evil Queen has put a jink on this site lately, it has gone bananas! Nevermind, thanks for joining in my Spartacus re-enactment, hopefully next time more people will join us, we were a little thin on the ground there, ha ha!