C Lynne, my suggestion is to think more about why you want the files--what bothers you about it? Maybe you can come up with a way to resolve that underlying issue without taking on a lawsuit you won't likely win even after lots of time and $.
Of course it's irritating on face value, but think about it--anybody can make a file on anyone else. The elders are just pathetic nobodies whose peers gave them a fake authority title, in a religion about an imaginary bearded sky daddy. What they write down is truly meaningless, once you distance yourself enough to see it for what it is.