Courthouse News Service has an item today on a dispute between the city of Arlington and a law firm over access to criminal records:

The City of Arlington and its presiding judge are restricting public access to criminal records, a law firm claims in Tarrant County Court. Sullo & Bobbitt PLLC claims the problem began when "Arlington 'moved' all of its criminal records to control by the municipal court ... declaring the information to be 'information of the judiciary.'" ...

(A letter from the city and its presiding judge) told Sullo & Bobbitt that if wanted to see a criminal record, it had to "inspect paper case records 'one case at a time,'" according to the complaint.

  It will be interesting to see how this shapes up, but in the meantime, here are a few sources on the issue at the heart of this dispute. The standards of public information that apply to governments in Texas do not apply to the judicial branch. The courts are supposed to abide by the Texas Rules of Judicial Administration in determining public access; city councils, mayors, school districts and other governments fall under the Texas Public Information Act.