SYG - KS District 10

Dear Mr. Spies:

Your request is being treated as a request for information under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA), KSA 45-215, et seq. KORA requires disclosure of information that is part of the public record, which is defined to mean "any recorded information, regardless of form or characteristics, which is made, maintained or kept by or is in the possession of any public agency." KSA 2013 Supp. 45-217(g)(1). The district court does not make, maintain or keep a record of the information you request. To the extent this information is available in the public record, providing a response to your request would require gathering of information from records on individual cases that are maintained and kept by the court. Kansas Supreme Court Rule 196, 2014 Kan. Ct.R. Annot. 297, governs public access to district court electronic case records. Each court will make information available for public access through the use of the public access terminals located in the courthouse. Only information from the court where the courthouse is located will be available from the terminal. Rule 196(b)(3).

Two provisions of Rule 196 have particular application to your request. First, Rule 196(d)(1) provides that public access to electronic case records or information contained in electronic records "must be available on a case-by-case basis only." Rule 196(a)(2) defines "Case-by-Case Access" to mean "that each electronic case record is available only individually and that when a search for an individual electronic case record returns multiple results, each result may be viewed only individually." Second, Rule 196(e) provides, "Compiled information and bulk distribution will not be available." In Rule 196(a)(1), "Bulk distribution" is defined as "the distribution of all or a significant subset of the information in court case records in electronic form, as is, and without modification or compilation." Rule 196(a)(3) defines "compiled information" to be "information that is derived from the selection, aggregation or reformulation of all or a subset of all the information from more than one individual court case record in electronic form." This means cases must be researched individually. The clerk's office will not compile reports or provide information in bulk. Because the information you request constitutes a request for information in bulk or compiled format, and is not a record made, maintained, or kept by this court, your records request is denied.

Sandy McCurdy
Clerk of the District Court
Johnson County, Kansas
10th Judicial District