The First District Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of Escambia County Clerk of Court, Pam Childers. The Court’s decision upholds a trial court’s ruling the Childers’ office did not violate the law by refusing to provide names of grand jurors to a public information request.
For more than 10 years, Kevin Wood of Panama City, Florida, had made requests to various clerks of court offices throughout the state for lists of grand jurors’ names. In January 2013, three weeks after Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Pam Childers took office, Wood made a public records request for the list of grand jurors’ names of the then-current grand jury.
Citing Florida law, Childers refused to provide the information to Wood because it was confidential. Soon thereafter, Wood filed a lawsuit asking the court to find that the Clerk of Court had improperly withheld the information.
The Clerk’s general counsel Susan A. Woolf successfully argued the matter to the trial court and obtained a favorable ruling from Honorable Ross Goodman, Circuit Court Judge. On November 21, 2013, the First District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decision.
For additional information, please call Susan A. Woolf, Escambia County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, at (850) 595-4310.
