Guidance Regarding Requests for CIS Account User Information
The Clerk's Office does not make information about an individual's online account available to the public. Account information includes the individual's name, address, telephone number, email address, and payment information.
This policy represents the long-standing practice of the Clerk’s Office, on advice of counsel and since the inception of CIS, regarding requests for CIS user account information. This guidance document has been developed based upon the Clerk's Office's review, with the assistance and advice of counsel, of its obligations related to Commission records pursuant to §12.1-19 of the Code of Virginia, and an assessment of the administrative or regulatory nature of CIS information and records within the Clerk's Office possession or control.
The Clerk's Office considers information related to an individual's CIS account to be regulatory in nature, because, among other matters, the CIS (system) assists the Clerk's Officein performing its statutory and regulatory obligations. The Clerk’s Office does not make available to the public information about an individual’s CIS account, by itself or in connection with any CIS transaction. This information includes, among other things, the individual’s name, address, telephone number, email address, and payment information. Requests for CIS account information are subject to denial by the Clerk’s Office pursuant to § 12.1-19 of the Code of Virginia, as well as any and all other applicable protections and/or privileges.
The Clerk’s Office may disclose CIS account information, without notification to a CIS account holder, in response to appropriate legal process or for purposes of law enforcement.
Information that is part of a filing allowed or required under the applicable statutes (including filings concerning business entities under Title 13.1, partnerships under Title 50, and UCC documents under Title 8.9A of the Code of Virginia) will be publicly available if the filing is made through CIS. Submission of a filing through CIS, however, is not deemed to require or authorize public disclosure of information about the CIS user account used to make such a filing.