February 1, 2008

Mr. Jeb McNew

Montague County Attorney

Montague County Courthouse

P.O. Box 336

Montague, Texas 76251-0336

OR2008-01540

Dear Mr. McNew:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 301218.

The Montague County Clerk (the "county clerk") received a request for "disposed criminal (misdemeanor) and civil case records" of the Montague County Court of Texas. The requestor seeks the "cause number, court number, defendant's name, date filed, date of offense, offense, offense description, date disposed, disposition description, sentence days/months and/or fine amount, court costs, attorney fee, defendant address, date of birth, arrest date, race, gender, height , weight, hair color, eye color, and driver's license." You claim that the requested information is not subject to the Act. We have considered your argument and reviewed the submitted sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

You state that the requested information is not subject to the Act because it consists of files of the judiciary, specifically the Montague County Court. Having considered your argument and the information at issue, we agree that the information at issue consists of records held by the county clerk as the agent of the judiciary. Records of the judiciary are not subject to required public disclosure under the Act. ⁽²⁾ See Gov't Code §§ 552.003(1)(A), (B) (definition of "governmental body" under Act specifically excludes the judiciary), .021 (Act generally requires disclosure of information maintained by "governmental body"). We therefore conclude the county clerk need not release the submitted information in response to the present request. We note that "[a]ccess to information collected, assembled, or maintained . . . for the judiciary is governed by rules adopted by the Supreme Court of Texas. Id. § 552.0035(a); see Tex. R. Jud. Admin. 12.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must file suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such a challenge, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a).

If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code. If the governmental body fails to do one of these things, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).

If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can challenge that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Dep't of Pub. Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408, 411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ).

Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.

If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.

Sincerely,

Henisha D. Anderson

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

HDA/mcf

Ref: ID# 301218

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Ms. Stephani Padgett

ShadowSoft, Inc.

7750 North MacArthur Boulevard, Suite 120-290

Irving, Texas 75063-7501

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume that the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

2. Records of the judiciary may be public pursuant to other sources of law. Attorney General Opinions DM-166 at 2-3 1992) (public has general right to inspect and copy judicial records), H-826 (1976); Open Records Decision No. 25 (1974); see Star Telegram, Inc. v. Walker, 834 S.W.2d 54, 57 (Tex. 1992) (documents filed with courts are generally considered public and must be released).

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