§ 7A-109. Record-keeping procedures. - North Carolina Statutes

§ 7A‑109.  Record‑keepingprocedures.

(a)        Each clerk shall maintain such records, files, dockets andindexes as are prescribed by rules of the Director of the Administrative Officeof the Courts. Except as prohibited by law, these records shall be open to theinspection of the public during regular office hours, and shall include civilactions, special proceedings, estates, criminal actions, juvenile actions,minutes of the court, judgments, liens, lis pendens, and all other recordsrequired by law to be maintained. The rules prescribed by the Director shall bedesigned to accomplish the following purposes:

(1)        To provide an accurate record of every determinative legalaction, proceeding, or event which may affect the person or property of anyindividual, firm, corporation, or association;

(2)        To provide a record during the pendency of a case thatallows for the efficient handling of the matter by the court from itsinitiation to conclusion and also affords information as to the progress of thecase;

(3)        To provide security against the loss or destruction oforiginal documents during their useful life and a permanent record forhistorical uses;

(4)        To provide a system of indexing that will afford adequateaccess to all records maintained by the clerk;

(5)        To provide, to the extent possible, for the maintenance ofrecords affecting the same action or proceeding in one rather than severalunits; and

(6)        To provide a reservoir of information useful to thoseinterested in measuring the effectiveness of the laws and the efficiency of thecourts in administering them.

(b)        The rules shall provide for indexing according to theminimum criteria set out below:

(1)        Civil actions. – the names of all parties;

(2)        Special proceedings. – the names of all parties;

(3)        Administration of estates. – the name of the estate and inthe case of testacy the name of each devisee;

(4)        Criminal actions. – the names of all defendants;

(5)        Juvenile actions. – the names of all juveniles;

(6)        Judgments, liens, lis pendens, etc. – the names of allparties against whom a lien has been created by the docketing of a judgment,notice of lien, transcript, certificate, or similar document and the names ofall parties in those cases in which a notice of lis pendens has been filed withthe clerk and abstracted on the judgment docket.

(c)        The rules shall require that all documents received fordocketing shall be immediately indexed either on a permanent or temporaryindex. The rules may prescribe any technological process deemed appropriate forthe economical and efficient indexing, storage and retrieval of information.

(d)        In order to facilitate public access to court records,except where public access is prohibited by law, the Director may enter intoone or more nonexclusive contracts under reasonable cost recovery terms withthird parties to provide remote electronic access to the records by the public.Costs recovered pursuant to this subsection shall be remitted to the StateTreasurer to be held in the Court Information Technology Fund established in G.S.7A‑343.2.

(e)        If any contracts entered into under G.S. 7A‑109(d)[subsection (d) of this section] are in effect during any calendar year, theDirector of the Administrative Office of the Courts shall submit to the JointLegislative Commission on Governmental Operations not later than February 1 ofthe following year a report on all those contracts. (Code, ss. 83, 95, 96, 97, 112, 1789; 1887, c. 178, s.2; 1889, c. 181, s. 4; 1893, c. 52; 1899, c. 1, s. 17; cc. 82, 110; 1901, c. 2,s. 9; c. 89, s. 13; c. 550, s. 3; 1903, c. 51; c. 359, s. 6; 1905, c. 360, s.2; Rev., s. 915; 1919, c. 78, s. 7; c. 152; c. 197, s. 4; c. 314; C.S., s. 952;1937, c. 93; 1953, c. 259; c. 973, s. 3; 1959, c. 1073, s. 3; c. 1163, s. 3;1961, c. 341, ss. 3, 4; c. 960; 1965, c. 489; 1967, c. 691, s. 39; c. 823, s.2; 1971, c. 192; c. 363, s. 6; 1997‑199, ss. 1, 2; 1999‑237, s.17.15(c).)