February 3, 2011

Mr. David Daugherty

Assistant County Attorney

Harris County

1019 Congress, 15th Floor

Houston, Texas 77002

OR2011-01779

Dear Mr. Daugherty:

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# 408104 (C. A. File No. 10GEN2629).

The Harris County District Clerk's Office (the "district clerk") received a request for statistical information pertaining to the adoption records of specified courts and any report compiled on ad litem fees in juvenile courts within the past five years. You claim the submitted information is not subject to the Act. In the alternative, you claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered your arguments and reviewed the submitted information, a part of which is a representative sample. ⁽¹⁾ We have also received and considered comments submitted by the requestor. See Gov't Code § 552.304 (interested party may submit comments stating why information should or should not be released).

The Act only applies to information that is "collected, assembled, or maintained under a law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by a governmental body." Id. § 552.002(a)(1). The Act does not apply to records of the judiciary. See id. § 552.003(1)(B) (definition of "governmental body" under Act specifically excludes the judiciary). Information that is "collected, assembled or maintained by or for the judiciary" is not subject to the Act. Id. § 552.0035(a); see also Tex. Sup. Ct. R. 12. Consequently, records of the judiciary need not be released under the Act. See Attorney General Opinion DM-166 (1992). But see Benavides v. Lee, 665 S.W.2d 151 (Tex. App.--San Antonio 1983, no writ); Open Records Decision No. 646 at 4 (1996) ("function that a governmental entity performs determines whether the entity falls within the judiciary exception to the . . . Act."). In this instance, you indicate the district clerk is the custodian of the requested information, which is maintained by the district clerk as an agent of the judiciary. Therefore, we find the requested information is a record of the judiciary, and is thus not subject to the Act. Accordingly, the district clerk need not release the requested information in response to the present request.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information 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 information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Ana Carolina Vieira

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

ACV/eeg

Ref: ID# 408104

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume 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 those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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