Dear [state contact]:
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is reviewing state laws and policies regarding public access to court data as part of the Analysis of Publicly Available Court Data project, funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. We have researched and attempted to answer the following questions regarding your state’s laws and policies. Could you please take a few minutes to review our findings? Please correct us if we are wrong, and provide any additional information that you believe is relevant or that we have missed.
What policy governs access to court records?
[For each state, NCSC will identify the statute or policy with brief description (e.g., is your comprehensive policy regarding access to court records, including remote access and requests for bulk distribution of court records or compiled information]
What statutes govern access to court records?
[For each state, NCSC will list statutes and constitutional provisions with brief summary (e.g., “requires all records of public or governmental bodies be open and accessible”)]
Is access to case-level data controlled primarily at the state level or by individual courts?
If individual courts control access to data, does each court set its own policies regarding data access, or do all courts apply the same set of policies?
Where can we learn more about access to data that is regulated by individual courts?
Do you provide remote access to court records?
[For each state, NCSC will describe means of remote access, who is eligible for remote access, types of data elements provided]
How to request court records/data:
[For each state, NCSC will cite statute, policy, or rule]
Rules governing bulk data requests:
[For each state, NCSC will cite statute, policy, or rule]
Do you publish an Annual Report?
[For each state, NCSC will provide the location of annual report, if one is available]
Does your state require clerks or courts to report court data to the state?
[For each state, NCSC will cite and briefly describe statute, policy, or rule]
Lastly, can you provide the contact information for someone that is able to share detailed information on your local court data, or indicate if that person is you?
Your assistance will help to ensure the accuracy of our research findings, and will facilitate comparison of court data access policies and procedures across the nation.
Very truly yours,
[project staff member]
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Roberts Freeman, Kelly |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-20 |