2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 24 - GOVERNMENT - STATE (§§ 24-1-101 — 24-116-102) › ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS (§§ 24-71-101 — 24-71.7-101) › Article 71.5 - Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (§§ 24-71.5-101 — 24-71.5-112) › Section 24-71.5-108 - Public access to legal material in official electronic record

An official publisher of legal material in an electronic record that must be preserved under section
24-71.5-107
shall ensure that the material is reasonably available for use by the public on a permanent basis.
L. 2012: Entire article added, (HB 12-1209), ch. 138, p. 503, § 1, effective August 8.
OFFICIAL COMMENT
Our democratic system of government depends on an informed citizenry. Legal material includes information essential to all citizens in a democracy, whether the legal material is effective currently, has been repealed or overruled, or is of historical value only. To exercise their rights to participate in our democracy, citizens must have reasonable access to all legal material.
This section highlights the importance to the citizenry of legal material by requiring permanent public access to electronic legal material. Permanent public access to official electronic legal material allows citizens to stay informed of legal developments and carry out their democratic responsibilities. Any legal material in an electronic record designated as official under Section 4 of this act must be preserved under Section 7. All legal material required to be preserved under Section 7 of the act must be publicly accessible under this Section.
Legal material preserved under this act must be "reasonably available" to the general public. Reasonable availability does not necessarily mean that the information must be accessible around the clock, every day of the year. An enacting state has discretion to decide what is reasonable, which should be determined in a manner consistent with other state practice. Providing public access to state records is routinely done by state archives, whose practices may provide important guidance to official publishers. Reasonable availability may mean that the legal material can be used during business hours at publicly accessible locations, such as designated state offices, public libraries, a state repository or archive, or similar location.
Access to preserved electronic legal material may be limited by the state's determination of reasonableness, but access must be offered permanently. That is, the preserved electronic legal material must remain available in perpetuity. This requirement makes electronic legal material comparable to print legal material, which is stored on a permanent basis in libraries, archives, and offices.
The Hague Conference's "Guiding Principles to be Considered in Developing a Future Instrument" state that "2. State Parties are also encouraged to make available for free access relevant historical materials . . .". In order to provide for maximum flexibility, and recognizing economic realities, however, the act does not address the issue of cost for access to electronic legal material. The result is that providing free access or charging reasonable fees for access to electronic legal material is a decision left up to the states.