BRB's Public Records Blog

Washington Increases Civil Case Limit Ceiling for District Courts

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.

 

New Online System to Courts Records In Idaho

The state judiciary is in transition to a new case management system which includes an upgrade to public access online. Twins Falls County is the only county on the new system - which is in a pilot phase. This means that two systems must now be accessed to do a complete statewide search for court records, including either a criminal or civil record search.

View the new system at http://icourt.idaho.gov

View the existing system at https://www.idcourts.us/repository/start.do

Criminal Record Search Fee Increases in MO and MT

Effective March 1, 2015, the fee increased by $1.50 for name-based criminal record background checks obtained from the Montana Department of Justice – Criminal Records and Identification Services Section increased by $1.50. The fee is now $11.50 per individual for a name check or state fingerprint check, and $13.00 for name check online.

Effective March 1, 2015, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, implemented a $1.00 fee increase for a name-based criminal record check. The revised fee for a name-based search is now $12.00 for each inquiry by mail or online. The online automated system (MACHS) is also $12.00, but a convenience fee is added.

 

San Luis Obispo Superior Court Cuts Criminal Record Services

With severe cutbacks in the budget and loss of staff, public record services for criminal records from the San Luis Obispo Superior Court is now virtually at a standstill. Employers, schools, landlords, and the general public have been denied most all criminal record requests for nearly a month since the court implemented a new case management system.

This is a "clerk searched" court. The criminal data is not online and the docket index is not available to the general public. There are five factors involved.

1. The court has a public access terminal which displays the basic criminal record index. However several years ago, the Court Executive Officer Susan Matherly moved the terminal to a back room and she will only allow the news media and attorneys access to this "public" terminal. All others, including the biggest users of public records (employers and their representatives) are denied access to the terminal and must submit lists.

2. Although the clerks will process criminal record requests at the window if the request is limited to one or two names or cases, all requests with more than two names have been held in limbo for four weeks. According to PRRN Member Judie Smith (who has over 1,000 name requests outstanding), the manager of the Criminal Department Karen Leibscher and Ms. Matherly both refuse to speak to her, or to other representatives processing work for employers, about the back log and when the requests will be completed.

3. As mentioned, the court recently instituted new case management system. This new system contains only open or current cases.  When the new system was installed, the clerks lost access to case details for historical cases on the record docket: the old system was shut down. For example, the clerks now only have access to the name and case number for closed cases. So in order to find details such as the charge, the disposition, sentencing, VOP, dates, etc., the paper case file must be pulled and viewed.

4. All closed case files are stored offsite, most files are several blocks away. Therefore per state regulations (see www.courts.ca.gov/documents/feetable09.doc), a fee of $15.00 is charged for each case file pulled since it will take more than 10 minutes to obtain.  For a great many requests/instances, this procedure and fee would not be necessary if the court had kept and made available the historical docket data. Because all case files now need to be pulled, the public is faced with a rather drastic fee increase for record searching in this county.

5. In regards to record requests originating from employers and landlords for background checks, these requests made to this court are highly regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and by CA Civil Code 1786. Plus, court data is only accessed and provided because of the expressed written consent of the consumer (who wants to be hired, etc.). The reality is the vast majority of the names are "clear" - meaning the record search shows no conviction. Thus, without the use of the terminal and historical docket index (which can provide the normal same day or 1 day turnaround time), the consumer who wishes to be hired now faces at least a 30 day delay in this county.

The Court has a new Presiding Judge- Dodie Harman. The court's phone number is 805-781-5143. The court's web page is http://slocourts.net.  

Kansas Driving Record Fee Increase

The fee for electronic access of Kansas motor vehicle records is increasing by $2.10 per record effective October 1, 2013.

For interactive processing for driver and vehicle records the fee increase is from $6.60 to $8.70.  For batch processing for driver and vehicle records the fee increase is from $6.00 to $8.10.  

Kansas also offers a monitoring system for employers to monitor commercial drivers. That fee also is increasing from $6.00 to $8.10 per driver.  

The electronic processing of Kansas motor vehicle records is through Kansas.gov, an affiliate of NIC. See www.kansas.gov/subscribers/services.

There is no fee increase for manually processed records, such as requests by mail or in person.

Michigan Raising Fees for Driving and Vehicle Records

Effective October 1, 2013, the Record Look-up Unit in the Driver and Vehicle Records Division of the Department of State is raising teh fee for driver and vehicle records by $1.00. The fee for a non-certified record or an electronic record will increase from $7.00 to $8.00. A certifed record will increase from $8.00 to $9.00. The fee also affects those entities participating in the state's notification and monitoring program for employers and instrunce companies - an increase from $7.00 to $8.00 when a record is generated.

See http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-1627_8996-107635--,00.html.

Update California Record Access

Governor Brown Backs Down
According to news stories released today (June 20, 2013) by the Los Angeles Times, Governor Jerry Brown reversed his decision to sign a measure that would have allowed local government to opt out of critical provisions of the California Public Records Act.

  

This follows a vote today by the California Assembly which also reversed its position and decided to keep the status quo, for now.

  

There is talk of a possible amendment to insure access to public records remains the same, but the costs of supplying the records would be borne by local government without reimbursement by the state as they are now. So there are still conflicts on the horizon.

  

View the LA Times story here.

California Courts and Record Access

Trailer Bill Killed But New Bill Passed That Alters Public Records Act

There was quite a bit of news and push back about the trailer bill that would have dramatically altered the fee structure for viewing and obtaining court records in California. The bill was killed by the legislature on June 14, 2013.

However, another bill was added to the budget bill which was passed on the 14th. SB71 (or AB76) modifies wording in the California Public Records Act (CPRA)T.

Currently, the CPRA states "...requires state and local agencies to make public records available upon receipt of a request that reasonably describes an identifiable record not otherwise exempt from disclosure, upon the payment of fees to cover costs."  SB71 modifies CPRA so that state and local government are merely "encouraged" to make the public records available as per CPRA. SB71 also makes compliance with certain provisions of CPRA as "optional" rather than required - menaing agencies can opt out. The provisions deal with access public records, including court records.

According to published reports this is a budget issue and the Department of Finance expects agencies who opt out  will save the state tens of millions of dollars. Another in-depth article is available from the Courthouse News Service at www.courthousenews.com/2013/06/18/58616.htm.

View SB71 or AB76 at www.leginfo.ca.gov/index.html. The bill specifically alters Sections 6252 by adding 6252.8 which in turn makes certain parts of the CPRA optional including provisions in 6253.

View the section affected in the CPRA at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=06001-07000&file=6250-6270

The bill is expected to be signed by the Governor on or before June 30th, 2013.

California Kills $10 Search Fee Bill

A proposal submitted by the California Adminsitrative Office of the Courts and attached to a budget "trailer bill" was killed by the legislation today - June 14, 2013.

The original proposal would have implemented a $10 fee to simply view a case file and was attached to the governor's budget with no open discussion.  Once known, there was a huge push back from the public. In addtion, many members of the State Assembly and Senate opposed the trialer bill. 

Fees are set by statute, see  www.courts.ca.gov/documents/feetable09.doc. The last changes made for record searches occurred in early 2006. There is no search fee unless the search takes more than 10 minutes and then the fee is $15.00. Certification is $25.00 per document plus copy fee; copies are $.50 per page.

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.