Free Court Records
Jeff Bender asked:
Despite what many people claim, there are several good reasons for the existence of free court records. First and foremost, the fact that court records are public means that the public (that is to say, all of us) can monitor the actions of courts in order to determine its accuracy. There has been more than one case when only the free access to court records has let the justice to be served.
Then, there is a wider case of public control over the government and the freedom of information that have been helping keep the U.S. democracy together for over two centuries. It will not be possible to keep an eye on local or federal government actions unless we have the right to access the public records to check what they have really been doing all that time. And we can’t do it fully without ability to check the court records, too.
And last, but not least, there is a matter of our personal and business safety. On many occasions it is crucial for us to know who we are dealing with. It is only logical that we will try to access to (preferably free) court records in an attempt to check the possible criminal record of our prospect business partner, major provider or an odd-acting neighbor. However, this is the moment when the right to access the public records conflicts with another major right – the right to privacy.
There many ways for people to access to court records, depending on the individual solutions chosen by the local court. Basically, you can either look for them at commercial websites such as Choice Point (though you can’t hope for the court records to be free) or at your local court webpages, or in the court archives. If you choose the latter alternative, you will receive free court records, but you will have to do most of the digging yourself, since there is no single, universal government-run database containing court records from all around the United States. The first alternative is usually much faster, though somewhat more expensive, too.
Either way, be warned that in many cases you can expect the data to be either harder to find or less informative than you might think. The major problem of free court records is that while there are no technical problems concerning publishing complete set of all public and court records on the Internet, such system is unable to discern between the honest citizens and potential scammers and identity thieves.
If such people were able to get access to the vital information concerning someone – its name, Social Security number, driving licence and a photo (and all such information may be parts of the court record even in case of a witness) – they could easily impersonate that person and commit frauds or crimes in that person’s name. Of course, there are also several other dangers of publishing court records – false accusations, denying of a mortgage or work because of minor wrongdoings, revealing the witnesses’ personal data as well as the risk of a technical mistake.
That is why many courts throughout the United States have ruled to seal most information concerning people’s privacy or allow searching their databases solely by a case number, not a name. While in many cases you can plea to the court to reveal some personal data, it can only be done with regard to a specific case. Such information are generally available only to specific organizations and businesses that need credential verification or pre-employment information. Usually it is done through some private database such as Choice Point and only rarely we can access the information directly rather than after being processed by the service provider.
Despite what many people claim, there are several good reasons for the existence of free court records. First and foremost, the fact that court records are public means that the public (that is to say, all of us) can monitor the actions of courts in order to determine its accuracy. There has been more than one case when only the free access to court records has let the justice to be served.
Then, there is a wider case of public control over the government and the freedom of information that have been helping keep the U.S. democracy together for over two centuries. It will not be possible to keep an eye on local or federal government actions unless we have the right to access the public records to check what they have really been doing all that time. And we can’t do it fully without ability to check the court records, too.
And last, but not least, there is a matter of our personal and business safety. On many occasions it is crucial for us to know who we are dealing with. It is only logical that we will try to access to (preferably free) court records in an attempt to check the possible criminal record of our prospect business partner, major provider or an odd-acting neighbor. However, this is the moment when the right to access the public records conflicts with another major right – the right to privacy.
There many ways for people to access to court records, depending on the individual solutions chosen by the local court. Basically, you can either look for them at commercial websites such as Choice Point (though you can’t hope for the court records to be free) or at your local court webpages, or in the court archives. If you choose the latter alternative, you will receive free court records, but you will have to do most of the digging yourself, since there is no single, universal government-run database containing court records from all around the United States. The first alternative is usually much faster, though somewhat more expensive, too.
Either way, be warned that in many cases you can expect the data to be either harder to find or less informative than you might think. The major problem of free court records is that while there are no technical problems concerning publishing complete set of all public and court records on the Internet, such system is unable to discern between the honest citizens and potential scammers and identity thieves.
If such people were able to get access to the vital information concerning someone – its name, Social Security number, driving licence and a photo (and all such information may be parts of the court record even in case of a witness) – they could easily impersonate that person and commit frauds or crimes in that person’s name. Of course, there are also several other dangers of publishing court records – false accusations, denying of a mortgage or work because of minor wrongdoings, revealing the witnesses’ personal data as well as the risk of a technical mistake.
That is why many courts throughout the United States have ruled to seal most information concerning people’s privacy or allow searching their databases solely by a case number, not a name. While in many cases you can plea to the court to reveal some personal data, it can only be done with regard to a specific case. Such information are generally available only to specific organizations and businesses that need credential verification or pre-employment information. Usually it is done through some private database such as Choice Point and only rarely we can access the information directly rather than after being processed by the service provider.
