Rule 4: General Access Rule.
Effective January 1, 2020
(A) A Court Record is accessible to the public except as provided in Rule 5.
(B) This rule applies to all Court Records, regardless of the manner of creation, method of collection, form of storage, or the form in which the record is maintained.
(C) If a Court Record, or portion thereof, is excluded from public access, there shall be a publicly accessible indication of the fact of exclusion but not the content of the exclusion. This subsection (C) does not apply to court proceedings or Court Administrative Records which are confidential pursuant to law.
(D) A Court may manage access to audio and video recordings of its proceedings to the extent appropriate to avoid substantial interference with the resources or normal operation of the court and to comply with Indiana Judicial Conduct Rule 2.17 [former Canon 3(B)(13)]. This provision does not operate to deny to any person the right to access a Court Record under Rule 4(A).
Commentary
Many records are available remotely at no cost as provided in Administrative Rule 9(E). The objective of this section is to make it clear that this rule applies to information in the Court Record regardless of the manner in which the information was created, collected or submitted to the court. Application of this rule is not affected by the means of storage, manner of presentation or the form in which information is maintained. To support the general principle of open access, the application of the rule is independent of the technology or the format of the information.
Subsection (C) requires that any and all redactions be identified. The phrase “not public information” or an equivalent designation may be used.