(a) "Record" means recorded information of any kind, regardless of the physical form or characteristic by which the information is stored, recorded, or reproduced, which is in the possession or custody of a court of this state and which has been received or prepared for use in connection with public business or contains information relating to public business. "Record" does not include unrecorded thought processes or mental impressions, but does include preliminary drafts and working papers. "Record" does not include records that have been disposed of under court records management rules, or records to which a court has access but which are not a part of the court records as defined in this rule.(b) "Confidential record" means all or part of a record that is either expressly declared confidential or is prohibited from being open to the public.(c) "Exempt record" means all or part of a record that is neither required by law to be open to the public, nor is confidential, but may be open in the discretion of the court.(d) "Court record" means a record that is an administrative record or a case record.(e) "Case record" means a record relating to a particular judicial proceeding, including an index, calendar, docket, register of actions, official record of the proceeding, order, decree, judgment or minute order.(f) "Administrative record" means a record that relates to the management, supervision or administration of a court.(g) "Remote access" means remote internet access to a court record, including electronic search, inspection, or copying information, without a physical visit to a court facility.(h) "Bulk distribution" means the distribution of all, or a significant subset, of the information in court records without modification or compilation.(i) "Compiled information" means information that is derived from the selection, aggregation or reformulation of some specified subset of data from more than one case record.N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. & Ord. 2
Rule amended effective 11/1/2022.Explanatory Notes.
Prior versions of this rule referred to documents, actions, and information and were not consistent with how the Century Code defines records. This definition of "record" is copied from N.D.C.C. § 44-04-17.1(16) (2021) but modified to include only records in the possession of a court of this state. "Confidential record" and "exempt record" are also adopted from the Century Code definitions to facilitate classifying court records into the same structure of prohibited disclosure (confidential records), discretionary disclosure (exempt records), and presumptively required disclosure (all other records).
The definitions of "court record," "case record," and "administrative record" are substantially revised to derive from the definition of "record" and refer to a class of "record" by content.
"Remote access" is defined in this rule so that the court may provide convenient, selfservice access to certain court records. This definition is intended to apply to anonymous or unauthenticated internet users but not to a user of an internet terminal provided in a court facility. This definition is not intended to apply to a telephone, letter or email request requesting records. The scope of records available by remote access may be narrower than the scope of records available through a courthouse terminal or individual request.