Pantos

In this case we hold that when the defendant-court completes the compilation of a master list of qualified jurors, whether on tape or in other document form, the list by name and address is a judicial record subject to public inspection and copying. Neither the Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.) nor other law requires defendant to publicly disclose to plaintiff information from a juror’s questionnaire. That information is obtained under representations of confidentiality and is used by the court as working notes and data to determine juror competency, preliminary to compilation of the master jury list.

Plaintiff Stephen J. Pantos operates a commercial jury investigation service providing background information on prospective jurors to paying clients. He requested the Jury Commissioner of the Superior Court for the City and County of San Francisco to provide him with the “trial juror lists” along with the completed juror questionnaires which were used to select the master list of qualified jurors. Plaintiff’s request was denied and he filed a complaint for declaratory relief asking the trial court to declare these to be “public records” pursuant to the Public…