We received what one of my smarter colleagues here at the TDCAA termed an "aggressive invitation" recently to provide LexisNexis with ALL criminal case dispositions for a..."opportunity to acquire electronic data report or document copies containing criminal and traffic court data records" for one of our JP Courts.

LexisNexis requested these records for a term of 1-1-12 to present, and in fact sought an ongoing obligation to provide this information. OK, I've only been a civil prosecutor for a bit over a year, with 25 years previously as a criminal prosecutor, but even I knew the answer to ongoing requests.

LexisNexis sought the following information: case or citation number, defendant full name, defendant address, date of birth, TDL number, violation nature and date, case filed and closed date, case status, the statute under which the violation could be found and finally, last but not least, the disposition and date thereof.

LexisNexis was kind enough to provide some very unique format information for which they desired this information to be placed into. OK, I also knew the answer to this.

I had to call on the collective Scott Genius (Brumley and Durfee), who gave me all the ammo I needed for an OR opinion from the AG. I'll note that although the request did not say open record/public information act request, upon contacting the requestor, she assuredly advised me it was an OR request.

Well, to save you time if and when you get one of these aggressive invitations from LexisNexis, you can go to OR2017-07936. Although both Scotts knew the answer, I did not. Thankfully, the AG agreed with the Scotts.

The bottom line holding of the OR opinion is that the requested information is not subject to the act and the justice of the peace need not release it in response to this request for information.

Feel free to contact me in Bastrop if you get one of these letters and want my letter to compare or anything else I can assist with.

Thank goodness for the Scotts. That's what I say!

I know that there is no doubt among TDCAA members that both Brumley and Durfee are, individually, "the man", this was yet another in many, many instances where both these fine prosecutors helped me out.

Thanks to the Scotts!