October 25, 2012

Mr. Gary A. Scott

Assistant City Attorney

City of Conroe

P.O. Box 3066

Conroe, Texas 77305

OR2012-17093

Dear Mr. Scott:

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# 473338.

The City of Conroe (the "city") received a request for the incode court name list report for a specified time period. You contend the requested information is not subject to the Act. We have considered your arguments and reviewed the information you submitted. We have also 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).

Although the Act is applicable to information "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's definition of "governmental body" "does not include the judiciary." Id. § 552.003(1)(B). Thus, information "collected, assembled, or maintained by or for the judiciary" is not subject to the Act but instead is "governed by rules adopted by the Supreme Court of Texas or by other applicable laws and rules." Id. § 552.0035(a); cf. Open Records Decision No. 131 (1976) (applying statutory predecessor to judiciary exclusion under Gov't Code § 552.003(1)(B) prior to enactment of Gov't Code § 552.0035). You state the information at issue consists of records of the city's municipal court. Based on your representation, we agree the submitted information is not subject to disclosure under the Act and need not be released to the requestor. ⁽¹⁾

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,

Tamara H. Holland

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

THH/ac

Ref: ID# 473338

c. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note judicial records may be public under other sources of law. See Gov't Code § 29.007(d)(4) (complaints filed with municipal court clerk); id. § 29.007(f) (municipal court clerks shall perform duties prescribed by law for county court clerk); Local Gov't Code § 191.006 (records belonging to office of county clerk shall be open to public unless access restricted by law or court order); see also Star-Telegram, Inc. v. Walker, 834 S.W.2d 54, 57 (Tex. 1992) (documents filed with courts are generally considered to be public and must be released); Attorney General Opinions DM-166 (1992) at 2-3 (public has general right to inspect and copy judicial records), H-826 (1976); Open Records Decision No. 25 (1974).

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