Effective April 1, 2017, this court location closed. All files and open cases were transferred to the Champlain Town Court.
Effective April 1, 2017, this court location closed. All files and open cases were transferred to the Champlain Town Court.
Posted at 01:31 PM in County Courts, Courts | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Champlain Town Court, Rouses Point Village Court
The Idaho Judiciary has delayed its transition to a new case management system called iCourts for court filing and records. The new system is an Odyssey product from Tyler Technologies and will replace the existing system called iStars. At this time Ada and Twin Falls counties are running on the new system, but ten more counties were scheduled to move onto the new system in the Spring of 2017. However, this has been delayed due to the need to fix some bugs and reportedly per revenue shortfalls in the counties.
Overall, the transition is expected to take 3 years to realize all statewide benefits. Once the complete system is fully deployed to all counties, it will provide improved access to electronic court records, hearing schedules, court documents, e-filing and more. At present, public access is limited to case document information. The plan is to first give judges and attorneys online access to trial court records including the ability view court documents and files. Eventually the public will have access to case documents also, but not for several years.
Below is a brief overview of each system.
The web page for searching is https://mycourts.idaho.gov/
The Judiciary's schedule to add counties has Blaine, Boise, Camas, Canyon, Cassia, Elmore, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, Owyhee and Valley Counties transitioning to iCourt in October 2017. Then Adams, Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Gem, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, Payette, Shoshone, Washington Counties will migrate in April 2018. The remaining 16 counties, Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Bonneville, Butte, Caribou, Clark, Custer, Franklin, Fremont, Jefferson, Lemhi, Madison, Oneida, Power and Teton, will go live in October 2018.
As mentioned, the public's ability to view case documents online at these courts will be delayed to at least 2018.
For all counties except Ada and Twin Falls, free access to trial court record index is provided at https://www.idcourts.us/
The terminals at the court house go back further, show the class of record, and can have more dispositions reported when compared to the older online system. Thus, iStars is not thought to be equivalent to an onsite search at the courthouse. It is not yet known if the new system will be online/onsite equivalent.
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Posted at 03:01 PM in County Courts, Courts, Public Records | Permalink | Comments (0)
A surprising number of courts do not have computerized record keeping. Per the latest statistics taken from the Public Record Research System (https://www.brbpublications.com/products/Prrs.aspx), 74.5% of civil courts and 71.45% of criminal courts provide online access to an historical docket index. Does this make you wonder about the so-called instant national background search?
Most courts that offer online access limit the search to the docket sheet data - opposed to displaying case file images. But checking a courthouse’s computer online docket index is the quickest way to find if case records exist online. Just be sure to check all name variations and spelling variations.
In general, case document images are rarely online, at least for free. Those courts that offer case images are usually subscription based and often require e-filing of documents. The reality is to obtain case documents one must go on-site.
All indices are different. For example, some of the questions you need to ask and to be answered are: How far back does the index go? Are all cases online? How current is the index - real time? With 24 hours? With 7 days? What identifiers are needed to search and are shown on results? Is the search countywide, or do other courts in the county need to be searched?
Most civil courts index records by both plaintiffs and defendants, but some courts only index by the defendant name. A plaintiff search can be useful to determine if someone is especially litigious.
Look for any help screens that may offer advice, such as the use of wildcards. If the search lets you input a partial name this will help you find records that may have name spelling variances. For civil cases, the usual reasonable requirement is a defendant (or plaintiff) name – full name if it is a common name – and the time frame to search – e.g., 2002-2017. For criminal cases, the court may require more identification, such as date of birth (DOB), to ascertain the correct individual.
Courts have types of case records, such as juvenile and adoptions, which are not released without a court order. Records may also be sealed form view or expunged. The presiding judge often makes a determination of whether a particular record type is available to the public. Some criminal court records include the arresting officer’s report. In some locations this information is regarded as public record, while in other locations the police report may be sealed.
Do not assume a search is countywide. When the general jurisdiction and limited jurisdiction courts are in the same building and use the same support staff, yes...chances are the record databases are combined as well. But that does not necessarily mean you will receive a search of both databases. Check it out as you may need to do two searches.
In many states, the general jurisdiction court and the limited jurisdiction court have overlapping dollar amount limits for civil cases. That means cases filed within a certain dollar (such as between $15,000 and $25,000) can be filed in either court. Check both courts; never assume.
Depending on the level of due diligence needed, a good searcher needs to know what the time delay is for posting records. Is it a week or more or 24 hours, or in real time? This is important if the search is conducted in connection with high due diligence such as with litigation or hiring matters.
This article is taken from The Manual to Online Public Records 4th Edition by Mike Sankey and Cynthia Hetherington. For more information on this publication, please visit The BRB Bookstore.
Posted at 02:25 PM in Background Investigations, County Courts, Courts, Criminal Records, Legal Research, Pre-employment Screening, Public Records, Record Research Tips | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Washington Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is in the midst of replacing its case management system (SCOMIS) with Odyssey software supplied by Tyler Technologies. The Odyssey system is now providing a two-tiered access system to case dockets from nine counties. See the Odyssey section below for details.
For many years the AOC's Judicial Information System's subscription service called JIS-Link has provided access to detailed case docket data for all counties and court levels. One may search a single county or statewide for criminal searches. Searching for civil records is a single county only search.
JIS-Link will continue to provide data on all counties, even as counties migrate to the new Odyssey system. As counties move to the new Odyssey system, data will still continue to be live and searchable for any county even if the county is sending information to Odyssey.
About JIS-Link
The throughput date for JIS is from 1994 or 1995 forward. The dates vary from 1979 to 1993 for SCOMIS. The subscription fees include a one-time $100.00 per site, a transaction fee of $.65. There is a $6.00 per month minimum charge. Visit www.courts.wa.gov/jislink or call 360-357-3365. The JIS subscription includes access to SCOMIS (the case management system) and ACORDS (appellate courts data). SCOMIS enables the superior court to record parties and legal instruments filed in superior court cases, to set cases on court calendars, and to enter case judgments and final dispositions. It is important to note that when a SCOMIS case number is found in the JIS application, detail level of the case may need to be viewed within the appropriate SCOMIS court display.
About Odyssey and its Record Access Portal
AOC implemented the Odyssey system with a SC-CMS Pilot site for Lewis County in June 2015. Since then eight more counties are now participating (Asotin, Columbia, Franklin, Garfield, Snohomish, Thurston, Whitman, and Yakima). Six more counties are scheduled to be added in May 2017. The statewide rollout is expected to be complete by 2018. At this time King and Pierce counties are not planning to connect to the Record Access Portal of Odyssey.
An unregistered public user may access the Odyssey Portal at https://odysseyportal.courts.wa.gov/odyportal. This access will not require any credentials and is meant to replace the free limited look-up of docket information at http://dw.courts.wa.gov/. Case documents are not available. Note that public users will have access to more case information, as well as public available documents, onsite at the Clerk's Office lobby terminal. So this free system is not considered to be online/onsite equivalent.
Registered users on the Portal may access public court case documents. All document access fees are paid directly to the County Clerk of the county, so fees vary by county. At present, if a user wishes to register in multiple counties, a unique email address is needed for each county. This is expected to change sometime later in 2017.
For questions regarding Odyssey you can email [email protected] or view the portal site above.
Posted at 01:26 PM in County Courts, Courts, Public Records, Record Research Tips | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Washington Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is in the midst of replacing its case management system (SCOMIS) with Odyssey software supplied by Tyler Technologies. The Odyssey system is now providing a two-tiered access system to case dockets from nine counties. See the Odyssey section below for details.
Posted at 01:10 PM in County Courts, Courts, Criminal Records, Public Records, Record Research Tips | Permalink | Comments (0)
Effective January 1, 2017, use of the no fee filing drop boxes will be discontinued. All court document will need to be filed at the Clerk's Office public counter or through the Clerk's Office e-File System.https://efile.cookcountyuscourts.com/
Posted at 01:22 PM in County Courts, Courts, Public Records | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted at 12:30 PM in County Courts, Courts, Public Records, Real Estate, Record Research Tips, register of deeds | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted at 01:19 PM in County Courts, Courts, Public Records, Record Research Tips, register of deeds | Permalink | Comments (0)
With the June addition of Cimarron County, free web access to docket information for civil and criminal docket information is now available for all 77 Oklahoma counties at www.oscn.net/dockets/. Search by name or case number. One may also search traffic tickets. Be sure to check the Court Records Help link for searching help including the wild card characters.
While this site is an excellent choice for pre-screening, the site is not considered to be online onsite equivalent. One issue is the site does not indicate the throughput of records per county. One does not know how far back the records go. Plus according to one nationally known record retrieval firm based in Oklahoma:
"Each district court is responsible for the accuracy of data entry. There continues to be a problem requiring a manual pull of the hard copy file to validate information. The OSCN has blocked access to the public viewing information to certain identifier fields and approx. 80% of scanned documents. This information is only available by using a terminal at a physical court location."
OSCN is rated as a 2 (scale is 1 to 5 with 1 being best) on the Equivalency Matrix for subscribers at CriminalRecordSources.com.
Use caution when using this site for strong due diligence needs.
Posted at 02:11 PM in Background Investigations, County Courts, Courts, Criminal Records, Pre-employment Screening, Public Records, Record Research Tips, State Agencies | Permalink | Comments (0)
In the state of Washington, the Superior Court is the court of general jurisdiction and the District Court is the court of limited jurisdiction. The District Courts have concurrent jurisdiction with Superior Courts over misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor violations, and civil cases limited under a set figure. Effective July 24, 2015, this civil limit was increased from $75,000 to $100,000.
Therefore any record searches that involve an amount between $75,000 and $100,000 should now be performed at both courts.
At this time, the state judicial web page has not been updated to reflect the new amount, nor have the majority of the county web pages been updated.
For detailed case docket data, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) provides the Judicial Information System's subscription service called JIS-Link which provides access to all counties and court levels. One may search a single county or statewide for criminal searches; however, searching for civil records is by single county only. Civil cases include small claims, domestic violence, vehicle impounds, name changes, anti-harassment petitions, and lien foreclosures vehicle impounds, and property damages.
The JIS subscription includes access to SCOMIS (the case management system) and ACORDS (appellate courts data). SCOMIS enables the superior court to record parties and legal instruments filed in superior court cases, to set cases on court calendars, and to enter case judgments and final dispositions. It is important to note that when a SCOMIS case number is found in the JIS application, detail level of the case may need to be viewed within the appropriate SCOMIS court display.
The throughput date for JIS is normally back to 1994 or 1995 and the dates vary from 1979 to 1993 for SCOMIS. The subscription fees include a one-time $100.00 per site, a transaction fee of $.065. There is a $6.00 per month minimum charge. Visit www.courts.wa.gov/jislink or call 360-357-3365.
A limited, free look-up of docket information is at http://dw.courts.wa.gov/. Search by name or case number. The index is of cases filed in the municipal, district, superior, and appellate courts of the state of Washington. The purpose of this site is to point where the official or complete court record is housed. As such, the outcome is not shown, but a link to a summary of the judgment does appear. No identifiers are shown. The search is by Municipal and District cases or by Superior cases or by Appellate cases.
Posted at 03:29 PM in Background Investigations, County Courts, Courts, Criminal Records, Jurisdiction Alert, Legal Research, Legislation, Pre-employment Screening, Public Records | Permalink | Comments (0)