Request By:
Mrs. Doris Fugate
Deputy Clerk
Office of the County Court Clerk
Perry County Courthouse
Hazard, Kentucky 41701
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; William L. Davis, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of February 13, 1984 in which you stated the following:
I am writing to you concerning our phone conversation on the 13 [sic] day February about granting Veterans copies without charge. The field rep for Perry County keeps asking us to give these persons free copies of anything they bring into our office. According to our County Attorney, we are to grant them free copies of any document that is on file in our immediate office but, not copies of medical records and ect. [sic] that they bring in to us. Please send me a letter so I can present it to the field representative the next time this situation arises.
Please send your reply to my attention; [sic] Mrs. Doris Fugate.
The matter you submitted is addressed in KRS 388.330. KRS 388.330 is titled "Certified Copies of Records To Be Furnished Veterans Administration Without Charge." And, KRS 388.330 states the following:
Whenever a copy of any public record is required by the veterans administration to be used in determining the eligibility of any person to participate in benefits made available by such veterans administration, the official charged with the custody of such public record shall without charge provide the applicant for such benefits or any person acting on his behalf or the authorized representative of such veterans administration with a certified copy of such record.
History: 1942 c25, § 14, Eff. 6-1-42.
A careful reading of KRS 388.330 requires the Clerk of Perry County Court to provide copies of records maintained in his custody free of charge to a person only if the records are needed in connection with a claim filed with the Veterans Administration. Otherwise, the person must not only pay for copies of records in custody of the Clerk of Perry County Court which are not needed in connection with a claim filed with the Veterans Administration, but also must pay for copies of records he brings to the Clerk solely for the purpose of copying regardless of whether they are needed in connection with a claim filed with the Veterans Administration. Also, this Office first adhered to this position in 1955 OAG 37,722 and sees no reason to retreat from it.