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Rules Relating to District Courts

Rule 123
Commencement of Actions, Pleadings, and Related Matters

Rule Requiring Use of Cover Sheets and Privacy Policy Regarding Use of Personal Identifiers in Pleadings

(a) Effective July 1, 2005, for the filing of all new cases, the clerks of the district courts shall require the submission of a cover sheet. The cover sheets should be in substantially the same form as Exhibit A hereto. [Forms may be found at www.kscourts.org.] The judicial administrator may exclude certain cases from this requirement.

(b) Parties filing new cases seeking divorce, child custody, child support, or maintenance shall furnish to the clerk on the cover sheet Social Security numbers for the parties and for the parties' children, if known, and dates of birth for parties and children.

(c) Pursuant to the court's authority recognized in K.S.A. 45-221(a)(1), Social Security numbers and dates of birth supplied to the district court in connection with a cover sheet shall remain confidential and are not to be released to the public.

(d) The cover sheet should not be retained in court case files, is not subject to Rule 108, and may be shredded or otherwise destroyed within a reasonable time after the case is entered into the case information system.

(e) Unless otherwise required by law, parties and their attorneys are directed to refrain from including, or shall partially redact where inclusion is necessary, the following personal identifiers from all documents filed with the court, including exhibits thereto, unless otherwise ordered by the court:

1. Social Security numbers. If an individual's Social Security number must be included in a pleading, only the last four digits of that number shall be used.

2. Dates of birth. If an individual's date of birth must be included in a pleading, only the year shall be used.

3. Financial account numbers. If financial account numbers are relevant, only the last four digits of these numbers shall be used.

The parties and counsel are solely responsible for redacting personal data identifiers. The clerk will not review each pleading for compliance with this Rule.

[History: New rule effective July 1, 2005; Am. effective September 8, 2006.]