BRB's Public Records Blog

California Court Record Fees Changes Pending

California Court Record Fees Changes Pending

The grim financial state of the California Judiciary is well known. In an effort to help remedy this situation, the CA Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has submitted legislation that alters the fee structure for public access to court records.

The current law, part of Government Code Section 70627(c), states if a search of records or files conducted by a court employee takes more than 10 minutes, a $15.00 fee is charged.  The new law changes this to be $10.00 per name searched or per file or per other information requested, regardless of the time spent by the clerks office. Thus if one does a name search and there are 4 case files to review, the fee would be $50.00. Also, the new law raises the court copy fee from $.50 a page to $1.00 per page.

The judiciary used closed door committee sessions to write this law change and submitted the text to the governor's finance department who in turn will add this as a "trailer" to existing budget-related legislation.

An interesting article about this development was written by Courthousenews.com. According to the story, evidently a lobbyist with the AOC stated the trailer bill is aimed at "data miners." This statement would indicate the AOC (or at least this lobbyist) is not very knowledgeable about how the "court record food chain" works - meaning the lobbyist is not familiar with from who and why the majority of court record requests are generated. 

The bill language can be viewed at the CA Deptment of Finance  site at www.dof.ca.gov/budgeting/trailer_bill_language. Click on Corrections and General Government [200-299], then view number 204, and scroll down to page 4.

 

Pending California Court Closures and Cutbacks

Four public notices and requests for public input were recent filed by county Superior Courts.

Kings County
Reduction in hours and staffing at Corcoran location effective May 13, 2013.

Los Angeles County
Closure of the Beacon Street Courthouse in San Pedro and reassignment of cases to Long Beach effective on or about April 22, 2013.

San Bernardino County
Closure and re-assignment of cases effective May 6, 2013 for courts in Barstow, Big Bear, and Needles.

Tehama County
Closure of Corning location and re-assignment of cases to Red Bluff effective June 30, 2013.

Under Government Code section 68106, courts must provide written notice to the public and to the Judicial Council at least 60 days before putting into effect a plan to reduce costs by closing courtrooms or clerks' offices or reducing clerks' office hours. The council must post all such notices on this Internet site within 15 days of receiving them. These notices may be viewed at www.courts.ca.gov/12973.htm.

 

Arizona Raising Court Fees

Fee changes are coming to many Arizona courts. Effective March 18, 2013 a series of fee increases are taking place for the AZ Superior Courts and Justice Courts. These increases affect both the filing of court cases and the access of court records.  Filing fees will increase between $2.00 and $8.00, depending on the type of court and type of filing. All record search and certification fees increase by $1.00; the Superior Court from $26 to $27, and the Justice Court from $24 to $25.

The Arizona Code of Judicial Administration gives the Supreme Court the ability to increases fees without legislative guidance. The increase however cannot exceed the percent of change in the U.S. Dept. of Labor Consumer Price Index.

A copy of the Administrative order for the Superior Court fees is found at www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/admcode/pdfcurrentcode/3-404_New_12-2012.pdf.

A copy of the Administrative Order for Justice Courts is found at www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/admcode/pdfcurrentcode/4-303_New_12-2012.pdf 

 

Search Tip

There is a particular idiosyncrasy in Arizona that one must be cognizant of when pulling public records. The text in the statute and administrative code calls for a fee if court personnel research when asked to locate a document (per year or source research). The word research is italicized and bolded because a number of  Justice Court clerks interpret the meaning of this word different than the Superior Court clerks. The Superior Court clerks will not charge a fee if a file number is given; they do not consider this as research. However many of the Justice Court clerks do consider the retrieval of a file when the case number is given as research and will charge this fee.  Hence the fee for many AZ Justice Courts to do a name search to find a file number then and to pull the physical file will increase from $48 to $50. Of course, if there are multiple cases, the fee grows higher.

News at Courts and Recorder's Offices & Motor Vehicle News

Alabama

Effective October 1, 2012, Chief Justice Chuck Malone entered an Order mandating that all attorneys must e-file their documents in civil, domestic relations, and child support cases. Per this Order and the Administrative Procedures, the Circuit Clerks' offices will eventually go completely paperless in civil cases.
See www.alacourt.gov/pdfppt/EfilingAdminOrder%209-6-12_001.pdf

Colorado

This month Eagle County is in the process of moving to a new software provider for searching recorded documents. The site has new options available, see http://acclaim.eaglecounty.us/.

 

California

California counties continue to close court sites or cut back on operations. The Kings County Superior Court location in Lemoore was closed last month. Also all Kings County court location hours have been permanently cut back. All clerk's windows are now open 8AM-4PM Monday thru Thursday and 8AM-Noon on Friday. In addition the Court intends to close locations in Avenal and Corcoran and reduce hours and staff at Hanford over the Christmas week.

As many other CA counties have already done, effective November 5, 2012 the San Diego Superior Court will only provide court reporters in criminal felony, family, and juvenile matters during regular court hours. Official court reporters will not be available in probate or other civil matters. Also, effective December 28, 2012, official court reporters will only be available in family matters for Domestic Violence Restraining Order hearings, Contempt hearings, and Request for Order hearings of 40 minutes or less.

Effective November 1, 2012, Glenn County will be increasing their recording fees by $1.00 per document title.

Oregon

OJIN is the acronym for the online program provides court case information from Circuit Courts in all 36 counties in the state. The Oregon Judicial Department OJD is working to migrate the online platform from OJIN to a designated vendor (Odyssey). The purpose is to create a more modern, user-friendly environment for record access, compared to the OJIN command line based system.

 

South Dakota

The South Dakota Unified Judicial System (UJS) recently changed the county serving as the centralized mail request center for statewide criminal record searches. The UJS asks that all mail requests be directed to the processing center at: Jackson County Clerk of Court, PO Box 128, Kadoka, SD 57543. 605-837-2122, fax 605-837-2120. Note the UJS will periodically change the designated county to operate the processing center. Be sure to call first.

Washington (State) Driving Records

Effective October 1, 2012, the fee for a driving record in Washington (state) increased from $10.00 to $13.00. This fee increase affects all access methods and record types. There is no fee increase passed along to vehicle records or collision reports.

 

New Release of ACD in the Works

The AAMVA Code Dictionary (ACD) is a translation table used to exchange conviction and withdrawal information between the states' driver licensing authorities. The AAMVA Code Dictionary (ACD) is copyrighted by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

 

A primary function of the ACD is to enable the state to use the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) to exchange convictions and withdrawals. Other applications, such as the Problem Driver Pointer System (PDPS), use these codes as well. Also, many states use the ACD to indicate out-of-state convictions on driving records.

 

The most recent version is Release 4.0.0. However, the AAMVA is now in the process of finalizing a newer release with fairly significant changes. There will likely be 5 new codes added, 6 codes retired and several dozen with changes. At this point, the changes are still subject to final approval and have not yet been formally released. Note: the AAMVA has provided BRB with an overview of these probable changes for our subscribers at www.mvrdecoder.com.

Two Federal Courts Moving

Iowa

Both the U.S. District and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts located in Cedar Rapids Iowa are moving into a new court building on November 5, 2012. The new address is 111 7th Street SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401-2101. The main phone numbers for both courts remain the same: however, the inside personnel individual numbers will likely change.  The Court has been in temporary quarters since a flood destroyed the old court building approx. 5 years ago.

Utilization of and access to the U.S. Bankruptcy’s Post Office Box address (PO Box 74890) will discontinue on Wednesday, October 31, 2012. Paper filings intended to be delivered via the United States Postal Service to the Cedar Rapids division of Court with a mailing/postmark date occurring on or after October 25, 2012, should be addressed to the new address.

Texas

The Austin Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas is moving into a new court building on December 3, 2012. The new address is 501 W. 5th Street, Austin, TX, 78701. The phone numbers remain the same. Note the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Austin is NOT moving.

SAM and the Excluded Part List System (EPLS)

At the end of July 2012, access to the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) was taken over by a new system. EPLS, along with Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), and the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), were migrated into the new System for Award Management also known as SAM (https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM) At this time, SAM is overwhelmed and record searching on the EPLS is still available at https://www.epls.gov/. Indications are this search feature will eventually be moved to SAM
 

Other free search federal government sites commonly used in background investigations remain unchanged, including:
   Denied Persons List - www.bis.doc.gov/dpl/default.shtm
   Unverified List - www.bis.doc.gov/enforcement/unverifiedlist/unverified_parties.html
   Debarred Parties List - www.pmddtc.state.gov/compliance/debar.html
 
For a BRB links list of other useful federal search sites see:
http://www.brbpublications.com/freeresources/pubrecsitesSearch.aspx?subcat=Other+Useful+Federal+Sites

Civil Case Limits Raised in 3 Louisiana Counties

 

Through several 2012 legislative acts, three cities have individually increased the upper $$ limit on civil lawsuits. The limit increase means the affected cases do not need to be filed in the more costly and time consuming District Court.

The City Court of Slidell (St. Tammany Parish) increased its limit from $35,000 to $50,000. The Abbeyville and Kaplan City Courts (both in Vermilion Parish) raised their limit from $25,000 to $35,000. The increases took effect August 1, 2012. 
 

View a chart of all legislative changes affecting City Courts at www.lcaanet.org/images/2012_Legislative_Changes_City_Court_6-14-12_.pdf.

City Courts are courts of record and handle misdemeanors, limited civil, juvenile, traffic and evection. The amount of civil is concurrent with the District Court based where the amount in controversy does not exceed $15,000 to $50,000 depending on the court.

Fee to Purchase Kentucky Criminal Record to Increase Soon

The fee for a criminal record search in Kentucky will increase from $15.00 to $20.00 effective July 1, 2012. The fee increase is part of a plan to stay within the court system's budget, which received deep cuts with the passage of House Bill 269 (see www.lrc.ky.gov/record/12RS/HB269.htm).

About Criminal Record Searches: Very few Circuit or District courts will perform a name search for the public. Most courts send criminal record requesters to a statewide service provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts. Records may be requested via fax, standard mail, walk-in, online, and even a drive-thru service. The CourtNet Criminal History database contains records from all 120 counties for at least the last five years for all misdemeanor and traffic cases and for felonies dating back to 1978. The criminal record online ordering system is called AOCFastCheck.
For details on ordered and how to set-up an account, visit http://courts.ky.gov/aoc/AOCFastCheck.htm.

Note as part of this plan that courthouses will be closed statewide on August 6, September 4, and October 15, 2012; employees will be furloughed. Also, since 2008 the Judicial Branch has cut 282 employees statewide and eliminated court programs in an effort to stay within their budget.

New Rules at San Luis Obispo County, CA - Superior Court

Effective June 1, 2012 the San Luis Obispo Superior Court will no longer conduct public record searches of the criminal record docket at the public counter and will only accept written requests. The requests can be submitted by mail or placed in a drop box. There is no charge for the research if the research takes less than 10 minutes. There is a $.50 fee per page for record copies.

Interestingly, on the announcement document the court stated it made this decision pursuant to CRC Rule 2.507 which governs electronic access and not the manual access process which this affects. Yet earlier this year court the court did alter the electronic access by the public. The court removed the public's ability to view the record index electronically on the public access terminal UNLESS the requester is an attorney. Hence, the court blocked the biggest user group of the criminal record docket from viewing it electronically. And now they have removed immediate counter service to employers and their representatives as well.

If you would like to express your opinion to the court, the court's CEA is susan.matherly@slo.counts.ca.gov and the presiding judge is barry.labarbera@slo.courts.ca.gov.

Pending New Jersey Bill Will Increase Many Court Fees

NJ Bill A763 was passed by the NJ State Assembly and now is making its way to the State Senate. In general, the bill contains fee increases that include (but are not limited to) the fee to file motions (papers) in the courts; the recording of judgments or orders in the Special Civil Part; the fee to affix a seal, or certify a copy or for an exemplification; and the fee to file a lien. The bill also authorizes the Judiciary to fund a statewide digital e-court information system which would include public access to digital court records. Indication from the bill's primary sponsor is the Senate and the Governor both favor the bill's current language. If and when signed, the new law would take affect July 1, 2012.

For more information, visit the state's legislative site at www.njleg.state.nj.us/ and search for bill number A763.

Free Driver License Status Checks

Motor vehicle records (driving records, title, registration, accident reports, etc.) are not public when the records contain personal information. A requester must have a permissible use per both federal and state law. However, some states do provide some useful records online, without personal identifiers, at no charge. The selected list below for a free search of a DL status is taken from The MVR Access and Decoder Digest.

Florida - https://services.flhsmv.gov/DLCheck/

Idaho - https://www.accessidaho.org/secure/itd/reinstatement/index.html

Kansas - https://www.kdor.org/DLStatus/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fdlstatus%2fsecure%2fdefault.aspx

Massachusetts - https://secure.rmv.state.ma.us/LicInquiry/intro.aspx

Minnesota - https://dutchelm.dps.state.mn.us/dvsinfo/mainframepublic.asp

Nebraska - https://www.nebraska.gov/dmv/reinstatements/client.cgi

North Dakota - https://secure.apps.state.nd.us/dot/dlts/dlos/requeststatus.htm

Ohio - www.ohiobmv.com/abstract.stm

South Carolina - https://www.scdmvonline.com/DMVpublic/trans/DRecPoints.aspx

Washington - https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/dsdDriverStatusDisplay/

West Virginia - http://www.transportation.wv.gov/dmv/Pages/dlverify.aspx

Wisconsin - https://trust.dot.state.wi.us/occsin/occsinservlet?whoami=statusp1

 

 

South Dakota Raises Fee for Court Record Searches

On March 20, 2012, the South Dakota Governor signed HB 1058. The new law will increase search fees charged to view or obtain Circuit Court records. The current $15.00 fee will increase to $20.00 as of Jan. 1, 2013, but the fee would return to $15.00 effective July 1, 2017. (HB1058 was actually a compromise - the original bill had an increase of $10.00.) The additional funds will be used to offset last year's budget cuts and to support an upgrade of the court's computerized case management system.

The $20.00 fee is for a search of statewide criminal and civil records, and also is applicable for local onsite requests to check individual court case files. View the bill at http://legis.state.sd.us/index.aspx.