Texas Court Records

On Monday, May 30, 2011 Governor enacted House Bill 1559th This law has a direct impact on data management in the State of Texas and texas court records, so we wanted to take a moment to discuss the new law and how it can affect your government . We have already received some questions about the changes and we will address below, but if you have any questions, please let us know by contacting your analyst to government information.

Texas court records Q: What does the new law say?

: You can read the entire text of the law here. The key points that the State Library has established the rules of keeping a criminal record before 1951 and that local governments can not destroy their records, except in these rules.

Texas court records Q: So what does that mean exactly?

: We can not talk about the purpose of the law, but fortunately the 'Bill author can. You can read the legislation to be online here, and Bill's article and the author here.

Q: So he says it is necessary to create retention rules, when start?

: Fortunately, we were updating our rules of conservation. You can follow any changes to our maintenance program on this blog or subscribe to receive updates via e-mail. We hope to have the approval of conservation programs that deal with a criminal record (CC Times, DC, and LC) in our next Commission meeting on 1 July. If we receive approval, the new rules should come into force at the end of summer.

Q: What range of issues is covered?

A: The bill covers all court records in Texas, but it does not direct the State Library to make all files permanently. We have identified the documents and file the 1951 trial, before the merit permanent retention automatically, but other records such as correspondence files and purchases will continue to have a short storage period and require permanent retention if they can demonstrate long-term historical value.

Texas court records Q: Is there a grace period, in order to destroy the old data before the law enters into force?

A: No, because the law was approved by more than two thirds of each house of the Legislature that became effective upon signature of the governor.