New rules limiting secret settlements in South Carolina courts have taken effect.

The state Supreme Court drafted the new rules earlier this year, and when the Legislature didn't reject them by the beginning of May, they took effect immediately.

The rules don't ban all secret settlements but create several legal hurdles lawyers must cross before they can file motions or settlements that the public can't see.

Even with new rules, plenty of justice still will be administered behind closed doors because the ban applies only to settlements approved by a judge. Attorneys estimate about 75 percent of civil suits in the state are settled before that point.

The push to reduce secret settlements started last summer in U.S. District Court, where Chief Judge Joe Anderson asked the state's 12 federal judges to ban the practice.

Anderson worried that secrecy prevented quick discovery of faulty products, such as the Firestone tires the government says contributed to 300 deaths in the late 1990s.

Other judges agreed, and the federal ban was put in place last fall.

The state rules aren't as strict as the federal rules.

Settlements in South Carolina still can be sealed as long as lawyers for the side asking for the secrecy can prove keeping the settlement under wraps serves public interest and why an alternative other than secrecy can't be reached.

The state also banned secret settlements involving public bodies.

Lawyers for doctors worry the new rules will invade patients' privacy because they might want settlements sealed in malpractice claims to keep their condition and treatment private.

Other lawyers say secret settlements protect the identity of molested children or victims of sexual harassment and prevent identity theft by keeping Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and other information out of public records.

However, an order signed Monday by the state justices says the new rules balance "the right of public access to court records with the need of the parties to protect truly private or proprietary information from public view and to ensure the rules of the court are fairly applied."

The new rules provide more latitude to Family Court judges, who can seal private financial matters or information sensitive to families in cases such as custody hearings.