GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001

SESSION LAW 2001-516
HOUSE BILL 1284

AN ACT TO CREATE A CIVIL PROCEDURE FOR ASSERTING A RIGHT OF ACCESS TO A JUDICIAL PROCEEDING OR TO A JUDICIAL RECORD; TO CREATE A NEW FEE FOR FILING A MOTION UNDER G.S. 1-72.1; TO PROTECT CERTAIN RECORDS AND PROCEEDINGS DEALING WITH SENSITIVE PUBLIC SECURITY AND PROTECTION ISSUES; to provide that CERTAIN terms of contracts between hospitals, hospital authorities, physician or other medical providers, or a pharmacy benefit manager and the plan are NOT A PUBLIC RECORD; and to provide for the confidentiality of competitive health care information.    

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Article 6 of Chapter 1 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 1-72.1.  Procedure to assert right of access.
(a)	Any person asserting a right of access to a civil judicial proceeding or to a judicial record in that proceeding may file a motion in the proceeding for the limited purpose of determining the person's right of access. The motion shall not constitute a request to intervene under the provisions of Rule 24 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and shall instead be governed by the procedure set forth in this statute. The movant shall not be considered a party to the action solely by virtue of filing a motion under this section or participating in proceedings on the motion. An order of the court granting a motion for access made pursuant to this section shall not make the movant a party to the action for any purpose.
(b)	The movant shall serve a copy of its motion on all parties to the proceeding in any manner provided in Rule 5 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Upon receipt of a motion filed pursuant to this section, the court shall establish the date and location of the hearing on the motion that shall be set at a time before conducting any further proceedings relative to the matter for which access is sought under the motion. The court shall cause notice of the hearing date and location to be posted at the courthouse where the hearing is scheduled. The movant shall serve a copy of the notice of the date, time, and location of the hearing on all parties to the proceeding in any manner provided in Rule 5 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.
(c)	The court shall rule on the motion after consideration of such facts, legal authority, and argument as the movant and any other party to the action desire to present. The court shall issue a written ruling on the motion that shall contain a statement of reasons for the ruling sufficiently specific to permit appellate review. The order may also specify any conditions or limitations on the movant's right of access that the court determines to be warranted under the facts and applicable law.
(d)	A party seeking to seal a document or testimony to be used in a court proceeding may submit the document or testimony to the court to be reviewed in camera. This subsection also applies to (i) any document or testimony that is the subject of a motion made under this section and that is submitted for review for the purposes of the court's consideration of the motion to seal, and (ii) to any document or testimony that is the subject of a motion made under this section and that was submitted under seal or offered in closed session prior to the filing of a motion under this section. Submission of the document or proffer of testimony to the court pursuant to this section shall not in itself result in the document or testimony thereby becoming a judicial record subject to constitutional, common law, or statutory rights of access unless the document or testimony is thereafter introduced into evidence after a motion to seal or to restrict access is denied.
(e)	A ruling on a motion made pursuant to this section may be the subject of an immediate interlocutory appeal by the movant or any party to the proceeding. Notice of appeal must be given in writing, filed with the court, and served on all parties no later than 10 days after entry of the court's ruling. If notice of appeal is timely given and given before further proceedings are held in the court that might be affected by appellate review of the matter, the court, on its own motion or on the motion of the movant or any party, shall consider whether to stay any proceedings that could be affected by appellate review of the court's ruling on the motion. If notice of appeal is timely given but is given only after further proceedings in the trial court that could be affected by appellate review of the ruling on a motion made pursuant to this section, or if a request for stay of proceedings is made and is denied, then the sole relief that shall be available on any appeal in the event the appellate court determines that the ruling of the trial court was erroneous shall be reversal of the trial court's ruling on the motion and remand for rehearing or retrial. On appeal the court may determine that a ruling of the trial court sealing a document or restricting access to proceedings or refusing to unseal documents or open proceedings was erroneously entered, but it may not retroactively order the unsealing of documents or the opening of testimony that was sealed or closed by the trial court's order.
(f)	This section is intended to establish a civil procedure for hearing and determining claims of access to documents and to testimony in civil judicial proceedings and shall not be deemed or construed to limit, expand, change, or otherwise preempt any provisions of substantive law that define or declare the rights and restrictions with respect to claims of access. Without in any way limiting the generality of the foregoing provision, this section shall not apply to juvenile proceedings or court records of juvenile proceedings conducted pursuant to Chapters 7A, 7B, 90, or any other Chapter of the General Statutes dealing with juvenile proceedings.
(g)	Nothing in this section diminishes the rights of a movant or any party to seek appropriate relief at any time from the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals through the use of the prerogative writs of mandamus or supersedeas."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 7A‑308(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	The following miscellaneous fees and commissions shall be collected by the clerk of superior court and remitted to the State for the support of the General Court of Justice:
(1)	Foreclosure under power of sale in deed of trust or
	mortgage	$40.00
	If the property is sold under the power of sale, an additional amount will be charged, determined by the following formula: thirty cents (30¢) per one hundred dollars ($100.00), or major fraction thereof, of the final sale price. If the amount determined by the formula is less than ten dollars ($10.00), a minimum ten dollar ($10.00) fee will be collected. If the amount determined by the formula is more than two hundred dollars ($200.00), a maximum two hundred dollar ($200.00) fee will be collected.
(2)	Proceeding supplemental to execution	20.00
(3)	Confession of judgment	15.00
(4)	Taking a deposition	5.00
(5)	Execution	15.00
(6)	Notice of resumption of former name	5.00
(7)	Taking an acknowledgment or administering an oath, or both, with or without seal, each certificate (except that oaths of office shall be administered to public officials without charge)	$1.00
(8)	Bond, taking justification or approving	5.00
(9)	Certificate, under seal	2.00
(10)	Exemplification of records	5.00
(11)	Recording or docketing (including indexing) any document
	– first page	4.00
	– each additional page or fraction thereof	.25
(12)	Preparation of copies
	– first page	1.00
	– each additional page or fraction thereof	.25
(13)	Preparation and docketing of transcript of judgment	5.00
(14)	Substitution of trustee in deed of trust	5.00
(15)	Execution of passport application – the amount allowed by federal law
(16)	Repealed by Session Laws 1989, c. 783, s. 2.
(17)	Criminal record search except if search is requested by an agency of the State or any of its political subdivisions or by an agency of the United States or by a petitioner in a proceeding under Article 2 of General Statutes Chapter 20	5.00
(18)	Filing the affirmations, acknowledgments, agreements and resulting orders entered into under the provisions of G.S. 110‑132 and G.S. 110‑133	4.00
(19)	Repealed by Session Laws 1989, c. 783, s. 3.
(20)	Filing a motion to assert a right of access under G.S. 1-72.1	20.00."
SECTION 3.  Chapter 132 of the General Statutes is amended by adding the following new section to read:
"§ 132-1.6.  Sensitive public security information.
Public records, as defined in G.S. 132-1, shall not include information containing specific details of public security plans and arrangements or the detailed plans and drawings of public buildings and infrastructure facilities. Information relating to the general adoption of public security plans and arrangements, and budgetary information concerning the authorization or expenditure of public funds to implement public security plans and arrangements, or for the construction, renovation, or repair of public buildings and infrastructure facilities shall be public records."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 135‑40.4(a), as amended by S.L. 2001‑253, reads as rewritten:
"(a)	In the event a covered person, as a result of accidental bodily injury, disease or pregnancy, incurs covered expenses, the Plan will pay benefits up to the amounts described in G.S. 135‑40.5 through G.S. 135‑40.9.
The Plan is divided into two parts. The first part includes certain benefits which are not subject to a deductible or coinsurance. The second part is a comprehensive plan and includes those benefits which are subject to both a three hundred fifty dollar ($350.00) deductible for each covered individual to an aggregate maximum of one thousand fifty dollars ($1,050) per employee and child(ren) or employee and family coverage contract  and coinsurance of 80%/20%. There is a limit on out‑of‑pocket expenses under the second part. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Article, the Executive Administrator and Board of Trustees of the Teachers' and State Employees' Comprehensive Major Medical Plan may contract with providers of institutional and professional medical care and services to established preferred provider networks. The terms pertaining to reimbursement rates or other terms of consideration of any contract between hospitals, hospital authorities, doctors or other medical providers, or a pharmacy benefit manager and the Plan shall not be a public record under Chapter 132 of the General Statutes for a period of thirty months after the date of the expiration of the contract. Provided, however, nothing in this subsection shall be deemed to prevent or restrict the release of any information made not a public record under this subsection to the State Auditor, the Attorney General, the Director of the State Budget, the Plan's Executive Administrator, and the Committee on Employee Hospital and Medical Benefits solely and exclusively for their use in the furtherance of their duties and responsibilities. The design, adoption, and implementation of the preferred provider contracts and networks are not subject to the requirements of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes, provided that for any hospital preferred provider network all hospitals will have an opportunity to contract with the Plan if they meet the contract requirements. The Executive Administrator and Board of Trustees shall, under the provisions of G.S. 135‑39.5(12), pursue such preferred provider contracts on a timely basis and shall make reports as requested to the President of the Senate, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Employee Hospital and Medical Benefits on its progress in negotiating the preferred provider contracts. The Executive Administrator and Board of Trustees shall implement a refined diagnostic‑related grouping or diagnostic‑related grouping‑based reimbursement system for hospitals as soon as practicable, but no later than January 1, 1995."
SECTION 5.  G.S. 131E‑97.3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 131E‑97.3.  Confidentiality of competitive health care information.
(a)	Information relating to competitive health care activities by or on behalf of hospitals and public hospital authorities shall be confidential and not a public record under Chapter 132 of the General Statutes; provided that any contract entered into by or on behalf of a public hospital or public hospital authority, as defined in G.S. 159‑39, shall be a public record unless otherwise exempted bylaw, or the contract contains competitive health care information, the determination of which shall be as provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(b)	If a public hospital or public hospital authority is requested to disclose any contract which the hospital or hospital authority believes in good faith contains or constitutes competitive health care information, the hospital or hospital authority may either redact the portions of the contract believed to constitute competitive health care information prior to disclosure, or if the entire contract constitutes competitive health care information, refuse disclosure of the contract. The person requesting disclosure of the contract may institute an action pursuant to G.S. 132-9 to compel disclosure of the contract or any redacted portion thereof. In any action brought under this subsection, the issue for decision by the court shall be whether the contract, or portions of the contract withheld, constitutes competitive health care information, and in making its determination, the court shall be guided by the procedures and standards applicable to protective orders requested under Rule 26(c)(7) of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Before rendering a decision, the court shall review the contract in camera and hear arguments from the parties. If the court finds that the contract constitutes or contains competitive health care information, the court may either deny disclosure or may make such other appropriate orders as are permitted under Rule 26(c) of the Rules of Civil Procedure.
(c)	Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prevent an elected public body, in closed session, which has responsibility for the hospital, the Attorney General, or the State Auditor from having access to this confidential information.  The disclosure to any public entity does not affect the confidentiality of the information.  Members of the public entity shall have a duty not to further disclose the confidential information."

SECTION 6.  Sections 1 and 2 of this act become effective January 1, 2002, and apply to court records filed on or after that date and apply to judicial proceedings commenced or pending on or after that date.  The remainder of this act is effective when it becomes law.  Section 3 of this act applies to public records in existence on or after the effective date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 6th day of December, 2001.

	s/	 Frank W. Ballance, Jr.
		 Deputy President Pro Tempore of the Senate

	s/	 James B. Black
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved 4:40 p.m. this 4th day of January, 2002