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2002 SESSION
024408772Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§ 16.1-305 and 19.2-389.1 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 16.1-305. Confidentiality of court records.
A. Social, medical and psychiatric or psychological records, including reports or preliminary inquiries, predisposition studies and supervision records, of neglected and abused children, children in need of services, children in need of supervision and delinquent children shall be filed with the other papers in the juvenile's case file. All juvenile case files shall be filed separately from adult files and records of the court and shall be open for inspection only to the following:
1. The judge, probation officers and professional staff assigned to serve the juvenile and domestic relations district courts;
2. Representatives of a public or private agency or department providing supervision or having legal custody of the child or furnishing evaluation or treatment of the child ordered or requested by the court;
3. The attorney for any party, including the attorney for the Commonwealth;
4. Any other person, agency or institution, by order of the court, having a
legitimate interest in the case or in the work of the court; however, for the
purposes of preparation of any investigation conducted by a local
community-based probation agency, of any pretrial investigation report, of a
presentence or post-sentence report upon a finding of guilty in a circuit court
or for the preparation of a background report for the Parole Board, adult probation and
parole officers, including United States Probation and Pretrial Services Officers,
any officer of a local pretrial services agency established or operated
pursuant to Article 5 (§ 19.2-152.2 et seq.) of Chapter 9 of Title 19.2, and
any officer of a local community-based probation program, serving adult
local-responsible offenders, established or operated pursuant to Article [ 2
(§ 53.1-180 et seq.) of Chapter 9 of Title 53.1 9 (§ 9.1-173 et
seq.) of Chapter 1 of Title 9.1 ] , shall have access to an accused's or
inmate's records in juvenile court and for the purpose of preparing the discretionary
sentencing guidelines worksheets as directed by the court pursuant to
subsection C of § 19.2-298.01, the attorney for the Commonwealth and the
probation officer shall have access to the defendant's records in juvenile court.
A copy of the court order of disposition in a delinquency case shall be provided to a probation officer or attorney for the Commonwealth, when requested for the purpose of calculating sentencing guidelines. The copies shall remain confidential, but reports may be prepared using the information contained therein as provided in §§ 19.2-298.01 and 19.2-299.
B. All or any part of the records enumerated in subsection A, or information secured from such records, which is presented to the judge in court or otherwise in a proceeding under this law shall also be made available to the parties to the proceedings and their attorneys.
B1. If a juvenile fourteen years of age or older at the time of the offense is adjudicated delinquent on the basis of an act which would be a felony if committed by an adult, all court records regarding that adjudication and any subsequent adjudication of delinquency, other than those records specified in subsection A, shall be open to the public. However, if a hearing was closed, the judge may order that certain records or portions thereof remain confidential to the extent necessary to protect any juvenile victim or juvenile witness.
C. All other juvenile records, including the docket, petitions, motions and other papers filed with a case, transcripts of testimony, findings, verdicts, orders and decrees shall be open to inspection only by those persons and agencies designated in subsections A and B of this section.
D. Attested copies of papers filed in connection with an adjudication of guilty for an offense for which the clerk is required by § 46.2-383 to furnish an abstract to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which shows the charge, finding, disposition, name of the attorney for the juvenile, or waiver of attorney shall be furnished to an attorney for the Commonwealth upon certification by the prosecuting attorney that such papers are needed as evidence in a pending criminal, traffic, or habitual offender proceeding and that such papers will be only used for such evidentiary purpose.
E. Upon request, a copy of the court order of disposition in a delinquency case shall be provided to the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission solely for purposes of determining whether to make an award to the victim of a crime, and such information shall not be disseminated or used by the Commission for any other purpose including but not limited to actions pursuant to § 19.2-368.15.
F. Staff of the court services unit or the attorney for the Commonwealth shall provide notice of the disposition in a case involving a juvenile who is committed to state care after being adjudicated for a criminal sexual assault as specified in Article 7 (§ 18.2-61 et seq.) of Chapter 4 of Title 18.2 to the victim or a parent of a minor victim, upon request. Additionally, if the victim or parent submits a written request, the Department of Juvenile Justice shall provide advance notice of such juvenile offender's anticipated date of release from commitment.
G. Any record in a juvenile case file which is open for inspection by the professional staff of the Department of Juvenile Justice pursuant to subsection A and is maintained in an electronic format by the court, may be transmitted electronically to the Department of Juvenile Justice. Any record so transmitted shall be subject to the provisions of § 16.1-300.
§ 19.2-389.1. Dissemination of juvenile record information.
Record information maintained in the Central Criminal Records Exchange pursuant
to the provisions of § 16.1-299 shall be disseminated only (i) to make the
determination as provided in §§ 18.2-308.2 and 18.2-308.2:2 of eligibility to
possess or purchase a firearm, (ii) to aid in the preparation of a pre-sentence
pretrial investigation report prepared by a local pretrial services agency
established pursuant to Article 5 (§ 19.2-152.2 et seq.) of Chapter 9 of Title
19.2, a presentence or post-sentence investigation report pursuant to §
19.2-264.5 or § 19.2-299 or in the preparation of the discretionary sentencing
guidelines worksheets pursuant to subsection C of § 19.2-298.01, (iii) to aid
local community-based probation programs established pursuant to Article 2
(§ 53.1-180 et seq.) of Chapter 9 of Title 53.1 with investigating or serving
adult local- [ resposnible responsible ] offenders and all court service units
serving juvenile delinquent offenders, (iv) for fingerprint comparison utilizing the fingerprints maintained in the Automated Fingerprint
Information System (AFIS) computer, and (v) to attorneys for the Commonwealth
to secure information incidental to sentencing and to attorneys for the
Commonwealth and probation officers to prepare the discretionary sentencing
guidelines worksheets pursuant to subsection C of § 19.2-298.01.