Committee approves substitute giving Commonwealth’s attorneys limited access to identifying data in aggregated court reports, with redaction controls

Delegate Kearney presented House Bill 567 (substitute), which seeks to clarify and standardize how requests for non‑confidential court records and aggregated case data are processed in district and circuit courts. The substitute balances transparency, privacy protections, and operational needs by defining permitted requesters, the data elements that may be included, and protections for sensitive information.

Committee members questioned why the change was needed now and what data are used in aggregated reports; Chris Bullard (chief deputy, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney) explained that Commonwealth’s attorneys need aggregated, de‑identified data for internal reporting and transparency and that the existing statutory change removed a practical avenue for them to get that information. Bullard said complete identifying fields (name, date of birth, Social Security number) are available to CAs in case processing but the ability to produce an aggregated dataset for statistical work required a statutory carve‑out.

The committee adopted a friendly amendment to permit Commonwealth’s attorneys to request name, date of birth and social‑security number as part of an aggregated dataset but with explicit limits on further dissemination and a later amendment to require only the last four digits of SSNs where appropriate. The Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) confirmed the aggregated reports currently exclude full name, DOB and SSN and that the requested change would add only those fields for Commonwealth’s attorneys. The substitute as amended was reported unanimously (8–0).