Supreme Court accepting comment on new rule regarding expanded access to court case information

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court is accepting public comment on a proposed rule that would establish a framework through which stakeholders could gain expanded access to court case information in the Kansas eCourt case management system.

The court will accept comment at publiccomments@kscourts.org until 5 p.m. Wednesday, December 9. The email subject line must read “Rule 25.”

Under proposed Supreme Court Rule 25: Expanded Access to Kansas eCourt case management system information, stakeholders are defined as:

• a governmental agency;

• a contractor for a governmental agency; or

• another entity that is not part of the Kansas judicial branch that is granted expanded access.

Law enforcement, district and county attorneys, and other groups require access to court case information, and the proposed rule provides a framework through which information sharing could occur.

Expanded access could include certain case types and documents and personally identifiable information that would otherwise not be publicly available. Stakeholders granted access to this information would be required to follow rules, policies, and procedures aimed at keeping the information confidential.

The judicial administrator would be responsible for managing this expanded access, which could include consulting stakeholders when developing standard operating procedures and methods of access.

As Kansas courts transition to a new centralized case management system following the Kansas eCourt Statewide Rollout Plan, many of their public records are becoming available through an online public portal. This rule would allow for access to information beyond what is available through the portal.

Public court records are accessible at each courthouse through computers reserved for public searches of court case information. Sealed cases and sealed records are not public, and other records may be exempt by judicial rule, order, or case law.