Superior Court Docket Documents – How Far Should ‘Transparency’ Go?

There is a clamor to make court records as publicly accessible as can be, but how far should the envelope of ‘transparency’ be pushed?

A Superior Court docket is a record of proceedings in cases heard by a superior court judge, such as a summary of pleadings filed by litigants in a case. The Superior Court's TRIAL docket, on the other hand, is a calendar that lists cases scheduled by the Superior Court and whether matters were indeed taken up during a scheduled date.

There is no exact manner in which a Superior Court must file its dockets other than by case or docket file number. It generally has jurisdiction over felony and substance abuse cases (alcohol, drug, etc.), as well as appeals on municipal court decisions.

Superior Courts across the country may vary as to the monetary value of civil cases (probate, real estate, etc.) they handle, but many handle those where more than $10,000 is involved.

More than judicial policy, the most significant difference among Superior Courts across the country has to do with access to what are indisputably public records.

Superior Court Docket - Task Force Recommendations

Superior Court docket policy, as well as access to other court records, recently took a stab at uniformity when the Connecticut Task Force on Public Access met in May 2006 with the sole objective to recommend concrete measures for MAXIMUM access to the judicial system.

Although the judiciary in many parts of the country is sensitive to public opinion in terms of the “correct” level of access to public records, readily limiting access or redacting (blocking out) data when public outcry ensues, the trend post-9/11 has been transparency.

The conclusions of the Connecticut Task Force reflected this trend, most notably with one of its first recommendations - the addition of the word “open” to the state judiciary's mission statement.

The Superior Court was the best represented in terms of numbers in the committee. By the end of August 2006, the task force recommended, among other things, the following.

1. All criminal docket data, including personal data of the defendant, should be made available online for public access, continuously updated according to real time records.

2. All data regarding criminal conviction should also be publicly accessible and searchable, except for certain items, such as the address of the defendant. (The court could resort to redacting a specific birth date if it saw the likelihood of identity fraud in the two previous recommendations.)

3. All police reports that formed part of the proceedings to determine probable cause, whether it was indeed found or not, should be part of publicly accessible and searchable records. (Exceptions would be when the courts, with reasonable cause, seal the records. Sealing is only for 14 days, after which it may be reviewed and extended.)

It will not be surprising, therefore, if Superior Court docket files, as well as other records, increasingly reflect a similar open policy throughout America in the very near future.

So now, more than ever, you get to see more information on the Superior Court records you wish to find. Ready for a search? Go to RecordsSiteReviews' superior court records section for the leading providers in the field.

 
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