6VAC20-120-80. Expungement and sealing.

 

D. is not operatable for Circuit Court Clerk’s Offices that scan all of their records and do not keep hard copies because the electronic record is the actual, legal record. A scanned record is safer than a paper record that is subject to fire, flood, and other destructive events. If we put it on off-line media, it faces the same problems of paper and requires more manpower. It is not efficient. A properly secured electronic system is better than either. Being on the Office of the Executive Secretary for the Supreme Court of Virginia’s system assures a level of security and control that would not exist for systems created by individual Clerk’s.

 

The following is a proposed 2^nd paragraph for D.:

 

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, any imaged case records maintained in the statewide circuit, general district or juvenile and domestic relations district court case imaging system operated by the Office of the Executive Secretary for the Supreme Court of Virginia that are to be expunged may be transferred to a confidential and secure area inaccessible from normal use within the respective statewide case imaging system and shall be considered sealed. Access to the expunged, imaged case records shall be limited to the manager of records for the court with the exception of designated staff within the Office of the Executive Secretary who are responsible for the operation of such case imaging systems and have access to the confidential and secure area for the discrete purpose of providing the manager of the records access to the secure area. No notification that expunged data exists shall be left in the normally accessed case imaging system.  Any related records that are maintained in an electronic order book shall also be deleted.