California Expands Online Access To Court Records.
Author/s: - Brian Krebs
California's Judicial Council voted Wednesday to allow online public
access to court documents in most civil cases, while restricting remote
access to criminal records and other cases likely to contain sensitive
personal information.
The new rules apply to all California superior courts, and will take
effect July 1, 2002. California will join some two dozen other states
that currently offer some form of electronic access to court records
over the Internet, either through state-run or private, for-profit
subscription services.
The decision caps a six-year review by the Judicial Council's Court
Technology Advisory Committee, which has struggled to strike a balance
between allowing public access to court documents and protecting the
privacy of often deeply personal information contained in the records.
Under the new rules, California courts will provide electronic access
to basic information about all cases via computer terminals at the
courthouse or remotely over the Internet. The data will include court
calendars, case titles and indexes, as well as a dated memo of every
subsequent proceeding in the action.
Courts may opt to release additional information on civil records on
a "case-by-case basis." The rules also prohibit the "bulk
distribution" of its records other than calendars, registers, and
indexes.
Citing privacy concerns, the state judicial council voted to restrict
Web access to criminal records, as well as documents related to family
law, juvenile, guardianship, mental health and civil harassment cases.
Such documents will only be made available electronically at the
courthouse.
The Judicial Council's decision comes on the heels of a similar
development at the federal court level. In September, the policy- making
body for the federal judiciary approved a plan to offer Web-based access
to federal civil and bankruptcy court filings, provided that certain
personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and
account numbers are redacted from the records.
The federal courts similarly chose to exclude electronic access to
criminal case records, but promised to revisit the issue within the next
two years.
That promise amounts to a critical distinction for reporters and news
outlets that have relentlessly lobbied state and federal courts to
release more information from criminal records. The San Jose Mercury
News has sued Santa Clara County Superior Court in an effort to gain
access to the court's case management system, claiming the records are
public and should be made freely available.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press, said she was disappointed that the California
judiciary opted for "a blanket restriction on releasing criminal
documents.
"The other thing I found disappointing was their prohibition on
bulk data, because there are some very interesting stories that can be
done if the public and the press have access to comparative data and can
identify trends in cases," Dalglish said.
