Washington

WA Supreme Court rules court records only exempt when held by the courts

Yakima, WA' On Thursday, January 13, 2011 the Washington Supreme Court issued its ruling in the case of Yakima County v. Yakima Herald-Republic, establishing that court records held by governmental agencies do not fall under the same exemption as records held by Washington state courts. The case centered around over 2 million dollars in funds allocated for attorneys fees for the public defender of a murder trial in 2005. The Herald-Republic argued that the public had a right to the information, while Yakima County maintained that the documents were exempt as court records. The court sided with the Herald-Republic in its 9-0 decision.^[1]