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March 25, 2008

Court withdraws secrecy order

Transcript Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An order which would have restricted public access to electronic court records has been withdrawn, officials with the Oklahoma Supreme Court an-nounced Tuesday.

The rule, which was originally designed to help curb identity theft, was set to take effect June 10.

Tuesday, the court's chief justice, Justice James R. Winchester, said he was "pulling the request to allow time for further study."

"The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is very aware of privacy and identity theft concerns of individuals related to the personal data that may appear on the court's Web site," the court said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

"We are cognizant that many businesses and individuals rely on the information court clerks have placed on our Web site. Personal privacy balanced with reliable public information is critical for a free society.

"Due to the very important issues for all concerned, the Supreme Court is hereby withdrawing its privacy and public access order ... handed down March 11, 2008, to give the issue further study and consideration," the statement concluded.

The court's about face drew praise from open records advocates.

"We're happy that they withdrew the order," said Mark Thomas, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Press Association. "We believe further study of the issue is very important and gladly will serve on any task force formed to discuss this further."

The original order, Thomas said, was "too broad, and closed so much information that it basically rendered court records unusable to thousands of people that relied on that information."

"I do believe, however,?the public wants us to seriously address the issue of identity theft, and more specif-ically?Social Security numbers,?and we will do so in the very near future."

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com

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