The minutes of the September 27, 2002 meeting were approved as written.

Staffing Change
Brian Backus announced that John Bell from AOC Legal Services will take over staffing the subcommittee meetings effective with the next meeting. Much of Kathy Kuriyama’s time is now and will be devoted to developing and conducting training on public access, data dissemination and records confidentiality.

JIS Electronic Data Dissemination Contract Issues
Brian Backus reviewed contract issues raised by two recent requests from purchasers of JIS public indexes:

1. Should the resale of public index data in bulk be allowed?

2. Should the insurance requirements be modified to reflect the lower risk inherent in some of the data sold?

3. Are e-commerce business practices sufficient to meet the contract requirement that public index purchasers screen, verify the identification of its potential subscribers, and obtain a written agreement with each of its subscribers?

The committee discussed each issue. Members asked about the underlying rationale for the prohibition on resale. Mr. Backus noted that it was intended to support other contract provisions that force the buyer to keep the data current.  The buyer must use only the most current version of the file.  Sellers receive weekly updates to the superior court index and quarterly updates to others. Members questioned the need for these provisions with respect to a probate case index which is the subject of the current request. Probate cases are almost never.

Members asked about how insurance requirements are established. AOC gets some advice from the Department of General Administration. Tom Clarke also noted that the contract section at the Department of Information Services now has a contracts officer with whom we can consult.

The committee noted the need for buyers of the indexes to tell their clients how current the data is.

The committee approved a motion that 1. a data purchaser’s use of a click through agreement for its third party clients is in compliance with the data dissemination contract and 2. the contract be amended to include a requirement that data purchasers are required to use include in standard disclaimers a disclosure of the currency of the information provided.

The committee tabled the resale and insurance issues to the next regular meeting.

Status Report on Vacation of Judgments
Brian Backus gave an overview of the status report on vacation of judgments which was included with the meeting materials and is follow up to discussions and decisions made last year. He reported:

1. AOC has looked at current practices for entry of vacations into the JIS and found that codes are not being entered consistently. AOC plans to deal with this by including vacation of judgments in its education program.

2. Work on a court rule to implement the legislative intent in the two statutes has not begun. The committee needs to decide how to proceed.

3. The AOC drafted additional language for the vacation of judgment forms to a request to seal, but found several problems with the sealing option under GR 15 and with the current system. Staff recommend that, until a new rule is adopted, only adding a section to the Vacation of Misdemeanor and Gross Misdemeanor Convictions brochure informing the person that he/she may want to also request that the case be sealed.

Judge Grosse noted the need for a thorough review of GR 15 after the public access court rule is adopted and that issues like the implementation of the vacation of judgments statutes should be included. The committee approved a motion to table issues 2 and 3 until that review. The AOC will go ahead with the education program.

Comprehensive Public Access Court Rule
Nan Sullins distributed a memorandum on comments received and recommended extending the comment period based on requests from commenters. Judge Grosse reviewed the background for the rule and decisions which have been made. The committee agreed to extend the comment period to February 21, 2003 and hold a special meeting on February 28, 2003 to discuss the rule and comments with the goal of presenting it to the JIS Committee in final form on March 28. To facilitate comments the draft will be posted on the Washington Courts website.

A special meeting will be held on February 28, 2003 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
The next meeting will be Friday, March 28, 2003 from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM.