Virginia Supreme Court rules against Daily Press newspaper in FOIA case
The Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that circuit court clerks are the legal custodians of certain court records and not the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court.
The records were sought by the Daily Press newspaper from a database kept by the OES. However, in their 11-page ruling, the justices held that the clerks of court are the legal custodians of the records and, therefore, the Daily Press must take its request to them, not the OES.
Hunter W. Sims Jr., the lawyer who argued the case for the Daily Press, said Thursday the information sought was and is public, but the effect of the ruling is to block the newspaper or anyone else from readily conducting studies of the state’s overall criminal justice system except at great effort. “I’m very disappointed. It’s been a long hard fight,” he said.
The newspaper sought the data under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in an effort to determine whether race plays a part in plea bargains in Virginia circuit courts. The OES, which is the court administrator for the state, turned the request down, saying that each of the clerks — not the OES — is the custodian of the records.
Read more: http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia-supreme-court-rules-against-daily-press-newspaper-in-foia/article_7c3a8db2-887f-59ff-b87d-a6e5be90490a.html
