A state appeals court has reversed a lower court that refused to unseal a guardianship proceeding’s court record after law firms that are defendants in a legal malpractice case requested the record be opened.

The Appellate Division, First Department court ruled in favor of the defendant law firms Flomenhaft & Cannata and Flomenhaft Law Firm and defendant Michael Flomenhaft, a named partner at both personal injury firms, writing in part that “on the merits” the 2015 sealing order in the guardianship proceeding “should have been vacated,” as the defendants requested, because the order “failed to set forth ‘good cause’ for sealing the records in the guardianship proceeding.”