California Judicial Council to Meet Next Week: Electronic Access to Criminal Case Records is on the Agenda

The California Judicial Council is meeting next Friday (Feb. 27) in San Francisco. Item no. 11 (see page 6 of the agenda) is an interesting item regarding internet access to criminal trial court records. The Administrative Office of the Courts will be recommending the adoption of an interim rule (good until the end of the year), "which would allow courts to post criminal case records on the Internet in a high-publicity case under specified circumstances." The agenda description of the item states that "Rule 2073 currently allows courts to provide remote (i.e., Internet) access to all electronic court records in civil cases, but not in criminal cases, because of privacy concerns." The AOC explains that "in high-publicity criminal cases, the use of the Internet may be appropriate, as it will significantly ease burdens on court staff and most information in the court file is already widely disseminated through the media."

The new rule would become effective immediately, just in time for the Scott Peterson trial!

As a practitioner and a blawger, I'm a huge fan of electronic dockets (and records too), and wish there were greater access. (Electronic access to all pleadings in criminal cases is another matter, and raises greater privacy concerns.) Rule 2073, which is already in effect, requires trial courts, to the extent feasible, to provide for remote access to registers of actions, calendars and indexes. Within the First District, the only trial court I know of which has found this "feasible" for criminal cases is Solano County. Alameda's remote electronic access is limited to civil, family, and probate cases. Greater internet access to trial court dockets would be welcomed by appellate practitioners trying to complete the record on appeal or trying to find out about related cases. (Such access would have smoothed out the investigation I have had to do recently in connection with a client's multiple cases: he's got 5 open cases in 3 different counties.

California appellate courts have come a long way and the Case Information web site is a beautiful thing. But there's still room for more access to electronic dockets. Supreme Court dockets are online for all cases, including juvenile case. But the state court of appeal still does not allow electronic access to juvenile case dockets. Hopefully, the Courts of Appeal will follow the lead of the California Supreme Court (here's an example in one of my cases), the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court (here's an example) all of which allow internet access to redacted versions of the dockets in sealed/confidential cases.