Governor signs bill to preserve county records

Governor Stitt recently signed legislation to ensure county records are preserved. Sen. John Haste (R-Broken Arrow) and Rep. Mark Lawson (R-Sapulpa) are the authors of Senate Bill 442 to increase the record preservation fee collected by county clerks from $5 to $10 for each instrument recorded with the Registrar of Deeds.

“There are innumerable court documents maintained by our counties around the state. Unfortunately, a majority of them are still in paper format and need to be digitized and archived to keep them from being lost or destroyed by aging, pests, fires or flooding,” Haste said. “Many counties also have to lease extra space to store these paper records. Digitizing them will save our counties money while also preserving these important documents.”

SB 442 will become law November 1, 2019.