Oklahoma open records law ruling draws fire
STATE HAS $1M CONTRACT IN PLACE FOR ONLINE ACCESS
BY PAUL MONIES
Comments 
6
Published: October 21, 2009
The state Supreme Court has signed a $1 million contract with a Duncan company to get electronic court records from 64 counties ready for a unified system of public access on the Web.
Related content
NewsOK Related Articles
The contract came to light after a recent ruling by the Supreme Court that has troubled some openrecords advocates.
The ruling forbids the release of all of the state’s electronic case information under the state Open Records Act.
Justices unanimously approved the rule Oct. 8 after
Edmond-based
INAD Data Services LLC requested electronic copies of all district court and workers’ compensation court case information.
INAD’s attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Until the unified system begins, basic district court record information will remain free on a case-bycase basis from two Web sites, the state-run
Oklahoma State Courts Network and privately operated On Demand Court Records, said Oklahoma Chief Justice James E. Edmondson.
KellPro Inc. of Duncan operates On Demand Court Records at www.odcr.com. It collects court filings and case information from 64 district courts and two tribal courts across the state.
The Supreme Court signed the contract with KellPro in August to get data from the courts it serves ready for conversion to a unified system.
“Eventually, we hope within the next two to three years, we will have a unified case management system where all documents in all 77 counties that are filed with the courts will be open to the public without charge on the Oklahoma State Court Network or its successor,” Edmonson said.
Edmondson said the KellPro contract will get existing data from the district courts it serves ready for a new system. KellPro programmers, analysts and developers will be paid $86 to $129 per hour.
“Without KellPro’s cooperation in that, we’d have to start from scratch scanning documents in the individual court clerk offices of 64 counties,” Edmondson said.
Tim Keller, KellPro’s founder and president of business development, said the company signed up county court clerks for its case management software over a seven-year period from 1993 to 2000.
“We don’t own any of that information,” Keller said. “They pay us for our services, the computer system.”
KellPro released a new version of its Web site earlier this year that allows expanded search features and case tracking for monthly, quarterly or annual subscription fees.
Earlier this month, Kell-Pro sent letters to
Oklahoma Bar Association members offering expanded access — including images of documents — to its district court data for yearly subscription fees. Members of the public are not eligible for the image access.
Edmondson said that solicitation conflicted with the long-term goals of the court to make the information freely available to the public on one Web site.
Still, open-records advocates and one state lawmaker questioned why the Supreme Court issued a ruling that prohibited release of all court record information that powers the existing court Web sites.
Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the
University of Missouri School of Journalism, said the ruling on bulk data carves out an exception to the state’s Open Records Act.
“It strikes me as a kind of holding pattern,” Davis said of the ruling. “I would imagine they are trying to merge those two systems, and until they do, they’re trying to keep from giving the store away in the meantime.”
Davis said he was glad to see the court’s ruling affirmed public access to electronic court records on a case-by-case basis.
State Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-
Oklahoma City, issued a news release in August criticizing the Supreme Court for stalling on INAD Data Service’s open records request for bulk data.
Reynolds said Tuesday he was “stunned” to hear about the Supreme Court’s contract with KellPro.
“The Supreme Court has contracted with a private company to provide data at the same time it’s cutting off access for other companies,” Reynolds said.
The Oklahoman’s Watchdog Team: Looking out for you. Visit
www.newsok.com/ watchdog
Leave a Comment
News Photo Galleriesview all
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
Public 'left out' as Oklahoma court records sealed
By The Associated Press
Published: August 12, 2008
TULSA: "Thousands of Oklahoma court cases and documents are being sealed by district court judges and are not available to the public, according to a published report."
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/opinion/local_story_202165538.html
"As the legislator pointed out, it appears that KellPro has a “sweetheart deal” in being able to profit from records that the state can only recoup its costs in making them available to the public."
http://www.duncanbanner.com/local/local_story_197000957.html
DUNCAN — A legislative investigation of the process county clerks release public information to private organizations is set to begin.
All public documents accessible at a county courthouse are available on Kellpro’s website, if it contracts with the county, but only to attorneys in good standing with the Oklahoma Bar Association, judges and court officials for a price.
Another problem for Reynolds is that the general public is barred from accessing public information available to attorneys from Kellpro’s Web site.
While no money is exchanged between county clerks and Kellpro for this particular service yet, but if eventually there is a profit from it, Kellpro has promised to offer a credit to the clerks for some of the other services Kellpro provides, said Tim Keller, president of Kellpro.