Judiciary Committee reviews package of criminal-justice and records bills; senators propose merging open-records measures

The Committee on Judiciary heard a reviser's briefing on multiple pending bills and discussed a Senate offer to place language from Senate Bill 70 into House Bill 21-34 to consolidate changes to the Kansas Open Records Act ahead of conference.

The update, delivered by Jason Thompson of the Revisor's Office, covered several Senate and House measures now in play between chambers. The committee focused substantial discussion on how the chambers might reconcile competing approaches to sealing court records and proposed technical amendments to the state open-records statute.

Thompson said the chart of bills had been updated to include a number of measures the committee has reviewed previously and several new entries. He summarized changes to Senate Bill 54 as now limiting discovery and requiring reporting of third-party litigation-funding agreements to courts, and noted that the House removed a provision that would have required the Judicial Council to study such agreements: "This limits discovery and disclosure of third party litigation funding agreements, requires reporting of agreements to courts," Thompson said.

On Senate Bill 186, Thompson described additions the House placed into the Senate version. The House added content from House Bill 2401 to provide that prior…