Today's Law As Amended


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AB-2962 Court records: fees.(2021-2022)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.

 Section 68511.3 is added to the Government Code, to read:

68511.3.
 (a) Unless otherwise prohibited by law, a court shall make public court records that are maintained in an electronic format available to the public, in either electronic or paper form, for inspection and copying at a courthouse during hours when the courthouse is open to the public.
(b) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), a court shall provide remote access to all public court records about civil cases, including registers of actions as defined in Section 69845, calendars, and indexes, that are maintained by the court in an electronic format. A court may provide the public with remote access to the records by means that include, but are not limited to, an internet website maintained by the court, or a third party on behalf of the court.
(2) A court is not required to provide remote access to the records described in paragraph (1) in either of the following circumstances:
(A) It is not reasonably feasible for the court to make the records available by remote means because the court lacks either the resources or the technical capacity to do so.
(B) The record is about one of the types of civil cases listed in the California Rules of Court as a type of civil case to which a court may not provide remote access.
(c) Except as provided in subdivision (d), a court that provides the public with remote access to the records described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) shall not charge a fee to search for, download, or copy public court records.
(d) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), a court may charge a fee to a commercial user for viewing, searching, duplicating, downloading, or printing public court records in an electronic format. The Judicial Council shall, by January 1, 2025, develop a rule of court establishing statewide commercial user fees or a process for courts to use in developing commercial user fees.
(e) As used in this section:
(1) (A) “Commercial user” means a person or entity, or any person acting on behalf of an entity, that has viewed, downloaded, or printed at least 100 individual electronic court records during a 12-month period for commercial purposes.
(B) None of the following shall be considered to be a “commercial user”:
(i) An entity formally organized as a nonprofit corporation, including, but not limited to, a nonprofit organization providing legal services to the persons whose records are obtained.
(ii) An attorney or law firm that obtains a record about a client.
(iii) A person who attests that the records are needed for a scholarly, journalistic, political, or government use.
(2) “Court record” has the same meaning as in subdivision (a) of Section 68151.
(3) “Public court record” means a court record that is not sealed by court order, made exempt from remote public access under the California Rules of Court, or otherwise confidential by law.