Sec. 51.304. PRESERVATION OF RECORDS

(a) The district clerk may, pursuant to the clerk's duty to record the acts and proceedings of the court, provide a plan for the storage of records, acts, proceedings, minutes of the court, and registers, records, and instruments for which the clerk is responsible by law, by microfilm, image processing technology, or other process that correctly and legibly reproduces or that forms a medium for copying or reproducing or by optical data storage. The plan must be in writing and provide for the maintenance, retention, security, retrieval, and reproduction of stored records.

(b) The plan must:

(1) require the recording and filing of original instruments, records, and minutes within a specified time after presentation to the district clerk;

(2) permit the use of original paper records in a proceeding before the court;

(3) provide standards for the organizing, identifying, coding, and indexing of records so a record can be retrieved rapidly and the reproduced record can be certified as a true and correct copy;

(4) provide for the use of materials to reproduce records and, if appropriate to the method by which records are stored, provide for the use of processes relating to the development, fixation, and washing of the photographic duplicates, that are of a quality approved for permanent photographic records by the American National Standards Institute, or another nationally recognized entity that establishes archival standards for mediums used to store data and records; and

(5) provide for the permanent retention of records, including security provisions to guard against physical loss, alteration, and deterioration.

(c) Repealed by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 85(3), eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

(d) A reproduction of a record stored in accordance with the provisions of a plan adopted under this section is an original record and shall be accepted as an original record by the courts and administrative agencies of this state.

(e) A transcript, exemplification, copy, or reproduction on paper or film of a record stored in accordance with the provisions of a plan adopted under this section is a certified copy of the original record.

(f), (g) Repealed by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 85(3), eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 480, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1985. Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 978, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 28, 1989.