The Florida Supreme Court is moving toward making court records globally accessible through the Internet, according to this article from the Orlando Sentinel. More than likely, court clerks look forward to these changes because they will be able to focus on their work without the added assignment of gathering all the records requested of them.

“It’s a cost savings to the public,” said Marion County Court Clerk David Ellspermann, who served on a court-created committee that spent the last two years researching and drafting the proposed new rules. “If you’re not at my courthouse interrupting my staff, then I get more work done.”

But outside of that, is this really a good thing? I think it could have both positive and negative results.

We’ll start with the obvious pro: court records will be easily accessible. For the people who really need those records, like IPF, this is good news. As the article states, “traditionally, everything in a paper court file was available to the public unless it was ordered sealed by a judge.” However, we know that actually getting those records wasn’t always the easiest. Even if they were public it takes a long time and a lot of persistence, probably due to the court clerks’ other work as stated above. If they were all on the Internet there would be no need for a middle man and the requester can instantly access anything they need. The new system would truly make those records public.

But how public is too public? The biggest con is the issue of privacy. Sometimes those records contain personal information that shouldn’t be put in the hands of just anyone (such as identity thieves) who would use it in a harmful way. You can’t take that information back. Once something is on the Internet it’s out of your hands. That information is forever accessible through archives or whatever means, and anyone can do what they wish with that information once they have it. As my information science teacher says “if I sell you a pig, you have a pig and I have nothing. But if I pass on knowledge, now you and I both have that knowledge.”

I think we should seriously consider the methods in which we surrender these court reports. Perhaps you need a membership that verifies your identity in order to access them, or maybe filter out personal information from what’s posted on the web. I definitely wouldn’t rush into anything.

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