JIS Data Dissemination Committee

February 23, 2007

MINUTES 
JIS Data Dissemination Committee

Members Present:

Judge Kip Stilz, substitute chair, Thurston County District Court

Judge Glenna Hall, King County Superior Court

Judge James Heller, Pierce County District Court

Siri Woods, Chelan County Superior Court Clerk

Judge Thomas Wynne, Snohomish County Superior Court

Guests:

Grace Huang, Washington Coalition Against Domestic Violence

N.F. Jackson, Administrator, Whatcom County Superior Court

Barb Miner, Clerk, King County Superior Court

Mark Weiss, Attorney

AOC Staff:

John Bell

Judge Stilz opened the meeting and introductions were made.  Judge Stilz stated the meeting needed to be adjourned early because there was a JIS Executive Committee meeting scheduled for 10 am that some members of the Data Dissemination Committee needed to attend.

The minutes from the 10/27/06 meeting were approved.

The issue regarding recent amendments to the Violence Against Women Act regarding protection orders and the remote accessibility of these orders was briefly discussed.  Grace Huang and Mark Weiss indicated they would like to see all victim identification in protection orders removed from internet access. John Bell presented a memorandum regarding his recent discussions with the VAWA Division of DOJ in Washington D.C. regarding this amendment.  He stated a DOJ attorney, Jennifer Kaplan, told him that she believed that the legislation applied to all protection orders, but that DOJ would not issue a formal opinion on this issue.  She also stated that she did not believe that there was any “enforcement mechanism” and that it would not be tied to grant money.  He also distributed a Maryland Attorney General Opinion and a Maryland AOC memorandum that concluded the VAWA legislation only applied to foreign protection orders. 

Judge Stilz stated there may be policy reasons to keep victim information in protection orders confidential and asked that Jennifer Creighton address the Committee next meeting on different ways JIS could maintain this information.  The issue was tabled until Ms. Creighton could report to the Committee.