BRB's Public Records Blog

Canton U.S. Bankruptcy Court Relocating

Effective June 1, 2010, the Canton Division of the Northern District of Ohio U.S. Bankruptcy Court is moving to a new physical address. The court will relocate to the Ralph Regula Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse located at 401 McKinley Avenue, S.W., Canton, Ohio, 44702. The phone numbers remain the same.

Fresno County Superior Court Closes Fowler Branch

Effective April 30, 2010, the Fresno County Superior Court closed the Fowler branch courthouse. The Fowler branch heard civil, small claims and traffic cases. All current cases and recent case files were moved to the branch court in Selma. Case files older than 2008 were moved to the archives in Fresno. 

 
Fowler's phone number was disconnected. The phone number for Selma is 559-457-6399.

U.S. Bankrupcty Court's McVCIS Adds Northern Ohio District

The new Multi-Court Voice Case Information System (McVCIS) is officially adding the Northern District of Ohio Bankruptcy Court to its list of users on June 1, 2010. McVCIS is slowly replacing VCIS as the means to obtain bankruptcy case information 24/7 by using a touch-tone telephone. The advantage McVCIS brings is that all participating courts use the same toll-free telephone number - 866-222-8029. With VCIS one must find and use the particular telephone number for that particular Court District. When a court transitions to McVCIS, both the older VCIS and new McVCIS number are supported for a limited time.  

 
The McVCIS system is quite simple to operate. You are given the choice of language then asked to pick a specific court. For example, Massachusetts is #1, California Eastern District is #5, and Colorado #22.

If you wish to have a list of the courts on McVCIS, merely listen to the nessage and jot them down. 
 
If you wish to obtain a list of all the bankrupcty courts' VCIS/McVCIS numbers, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts provides a list of VCIS and McVCIS numbers in use at www.pacer.gov/phone_access.html. However, this list is not current. In fact the list shows only one court (MD) having the McVCIS system in place and it shows a number of telephone numbers that are no longer in use. Personnel at the U.S. Courts indicated that their list is only changed when a bankruptcy court gives them notification, which evidently is not very often. BRB is making every effort to keep an up-to-date list for our PRRS users.

If you wish to obtain a list, we can help you out. Please call us at 800-929-3811.

Obtaining Crash Reports in Louisiana

The Louisiana State Police, Traffic Records Unit recently launched a new web service that enables one to purchase a copy of a crash report. The request requires first and last name, date of crash, and parish location of crash. The initial search is free and a limited preview is shown. However, to view and download a PDF version of the report a fee of $8.50 is required.  

To utilize this service, visit www.lsp.org and click on Crash Report REQ found on the lower left side of the screen.

MN Closes Vessel Records to Permissible Users

As a result of recent legislation, records related to the ownership and registration of watercraft, snowmobiles, off-highway vehicles, and off-highway motorcycles vehicle records held by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) may no longer be accessed by the private sector unless written consent is given by the owner. This ban includes access to lien records on titled watercraft.   

MN statute section 84.0874 classifies electronic licensing transactions involving the DNR as private data. Since all vessel-related transactions involving the issuance of licenses, registrations, stickers, or passes are electronic, the data related to these transaction are now closed. The statute also affects hunting and fishing license information. Previously, the NDR followed the permissible use requirements of DPPA and permitted entities with a legitimate business interest - such as lending institutions, attorneys, and insurance companies - to access the record information. 
 
To view the statute and related material visit https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=84.0874.

Vessel Title and Lien Records in Louisiana

Public Record Search Tip...

Vessel Title and Lien Records in Louisiana

Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, PO 14796, Baton Rouge  70898, 225-765-2898  www.wlf.louisiana.gov/boating. 
All motorized boats and all sail boats over 12 ft must be registered. Effective August 25, 2009, Louisiana became a titling state for certain boats and this agency is now the authorizing entity for securing liens on titles. Until that date no titles were issued. Prior to that date, lien information was found at the parish level. Now both locations (this agency and Parishes) should be checked.

Taken from BRB's Public Record Research System

PRRN Releases Model Public Record Researcher Agreement

On Monday April 26th, the Public Record Retriever Network (PRRN, www.prrn.us) announced the release of a model template of a Public Record Researcher Agreement to be used by public record researchers and Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs). The Agreement represents a best efforts work to provide a starting point for a written agreement that is fair to both parties and not one-sided in nature. 

Designing the Agreement as a flexible template gives both parties the ability to modify text to properly reflect their business practices and services, as well as recognize the fact that different jurisdictions can place different demands on public record research.

Some of the issues addressed in the Agreement include: defining default search criteria; defining the centralized court index and the predominantly used index; which party provides E & O insurance coverage; disclosure of working with sub-contractors; disclosure of pre-screened searches; and charges or non-charges for searching AKA's aliases and hyphenated names.

In addition, the Agreement is designed to comply with Clauses 4.1 and 4.3 of the NAPBS Accreditation Rules Document. 

This Model Agreement is the property of PRRN and is provided to PRRN members to use as a member benefit.  It will hopefully find its way into circulation.
 

Reminder - Online AZ Driving Record to Increase May 1

A $1.75 portal fee increase for the electronic access of a driving record from the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division is scheduled to take place effective May 1, 2010. The new fee structure increases the total for both interactive and batch processing. The fee for an interactive 39-month record increases to $6.00 from $4.25; for an interactive 5-year to $8.00 from $6.25; for a batch 39-month record to $5.00 from $3.25; and for a batch 5-year record to $6.00 from $4.25.

The Motor Vehicle Record Request System (MVRRS) is Arizona's web-based application used by commercial and government entities contracted with AZ MVD to electronically request records. Certified and uncertified driving records can be obtained in an interactive or batch mode. For more information about MVRRS, contact the Electronic Data Services Unit by email at eds@azdot.gov or call 602-712-7235.

The fee increase does not affect the access of vehicle records nor of mail or walk-in record requests.

West Virginia Circuit Courts - Copy Fee Increase

Effective July 1, 2010, the fee for a copy of documents at all West Virginia Circuit Courts will increase from $.50 to $.75 per page.  This fee increase is per state legislation - Senate Bill 471. The original version of the bill had the copy fee at $1.00, but the final enrolled version set the fee at $.75.

Bill SB471 can be viewed at www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bill_status.cfm, which gives a nice overview of the many Circuit Courts fees set by statute.

Maryland Probate Records Now Online

A new, free statewide or single county docket search of Maryland Register of Wills records is offered at http://jportal.mdcourts.gov/willsandtrusts/index.jsf.  One may search by search by Decedent, Guardian, Interested Party, Minor, or Personal Representative. Records from the Register of Wills of all counties go back to at least 1998.
  
Recording Fee Increase in El Dorado County, CA  Amid Confusion
On April 12, 2010, a $6.00 fee increase went into affect for the recording fee of the 1st page for most documents or titles recorded by the El Dorado County Recorder-Clerk in California. El Dorado County includes Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. For example, the fee for a one-page basic document increased from $9.00 to $15.00. Taking into account the $3.00 Fraud Prevention Fund, the new first page total is now $18.00 if the document is a Deed of Trust, Assignment of Deed of Trust, Reconveyance, Request for Notice, Notice of Default, Rescission of Notice of Default, Substitution of Trustee, or Notice of Trustee Sale.

What is confusing and has led to many recordings being rejected is that this county is "Title Driven." This means that a document with two titles - such as when a Substitution of Trustee and a Reconveyance are placed on the same single page - the fee is per title and not per page. For this example the fee is $36.00 for the first page, not $18.00.

The increase does not affect any of additional page fees nor affect the recording fee for a Uniform Commercial Code document or a Government Release of Lien.

The fee schedule is found at:

 https://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us/countyclerk/fee_schedule.html.