The Washington state Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Yakima newspaper’s quest for access to an estimated $2 million in billing records for court-appointed attorneys in a 2005 murder case.
The Yakima Herald-Republic had argued that the public has a clear interest in knowing how the money was spent. Yakima County countered that it couldn’t turn over the documents because they were sealed by a judge.
Court records are exempt from the state Public Records Act, but only when they are exclusively held by the courts, the court said in a 9-0 ruling.
The Press and The Bench 
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