BRB's Public Records Blog

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.

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 [email protected] and the presiding judge is [email protected].

Oklahoma Okmulgee County Combines District Courts

Last month the Okmulgee County 24th Judicial District Court closed its Branch Court in Henryetta and moved the operation including closed case files to the main branch in Okmulgee. The District Court handles Felony, Misdemeanor, Civil, Eviction, Small Claims, Probate cases. Previously, an on-site records search necessitated visiting both locations.