Court Records Draft Plan Released

Court Records Task Force Releases Draft Plan

A judicial advisory panel has drafted a plan to keep court records, especially electronic court records, open to the public, urging officials to plan for a future when more records are available by computer from remote locations.

The Committee on Access to Court Records’ draft plan calls for the Maryland court system to make its paper records uniformly accessible across the state. The draft plan recommends continuing current access to electronic records. It also cautions that privacy issues may arise as more records are filed and maintained electronically, and suggest that in the future the cour consider whether current safeguards are accurate.

MDDC Government Affairs Committee Chair Carol Melamed of The Washington Post is the press representative on the committee and is a principal author of the draft report.

"The committee’s recommendations are fair and balanced," Melamed said. "They provide for maximum public access, but they also have appropriate safeguards."

The 18-member committee was formed in December 2000, a month after an earlier panel proposed sharply curbing public access to the computerized records that are used for everything from background checks to routine news reporting.

The proposal prompted an outcry from representatives of news organizations and the 3,000 businesses and individuals who depend on court records.

Robert M. Bell, chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, appointed the new committee, which included representatives of a variety of businesses that routinely use the records, such as banks and private detectives, the news media, elected officials and open-government advocates.

The new committee’s recommendations are receiving a better reception.

"I’m pleased that they’ve recognized that this information belongs to the citizens of Maryland," said Michael S. Powell, president of the MDDC Press Association and managing editor of The Frederick News-Post.

The committee is expected to make some changes to its rough draft and vote electronically on it this month before turning the report over to Bell. A 30-day public comment period will follow. The Court of Appeals could then adopt the recommendations as policy.

The committee’s chairman, retired Circuit Judge Paul E. Alpert, said he doubted there would be much public opposition because "there was such a cross-section of the public represented" on the task force that has been working for nearly a year.

- excerpted from The Baltimore Sun