§ 6-1451.County court records; review; copies at litigant's expense.

§ 6-1451 covers the mechanics of the county court's own files. Records have to follow the organization laid out in the Records Model in the County Court Procedures Manual, and they can be kept on any media the State Court Administrator approves, following the State Records Administrator's rules and regulations. For cases handled entirely electronically on the state's JUSTICE system, the rule bars keeping a duplicate paper file — the electronic record is the record. Wherever possible, courts must use the Nebraska Supreme Court's approved standard forms without modification, and any change to those forms needs the State Court Administrator's approval before it can be printed or used.

Access to records gets special treatment for two groups. Anyone without access to the court-authorized service provider can inspect the electronic transcript and bill of exceptions at the clerk's office on a computer terminal the court provides — except confidential or sealed records, which need leave of court first — but court staff will not prepare a paper copy of a transcript or bill of exceptions unless the requester pays the prescribed rate.

Incarcerated persons get a defined path to their own case records. A request for a transcript of pleadings, or for a bill of exceptions, gets prepared at the standard copying rate and mailed to the correctional center where the person resides, at that person's expense, unless the person is proceeding in forma pauperis in the underlying action. Even then, once a litigant has received one free copy under an in forma pauperis designation, additional copies generally come at that litigant's own cost absent good cause. And where a request for a copy comes in while no action is pending, the rule requires the litigant to show good cause, with a copy provided only by court order.