The Interdependent Third Branch
Tracking court organization, administration, structure, and strategy
Maine is undertaking a $15 million program to digitize its court records, but some of those records will only be available to those who physically travel to the courthouse. The story and commentary can be found here.
Barring an order to seal the records, they really should be made publicly available online.
Increasingly, state court systems are following the lead of the federal courts and placing their case files online, where they can be easily accessed by the public. The latest court system to announce a move is Hamilton County, Tennessee. Don’t go looking for information just yet: there are still a number of bureaucratic hoops to jump through before digitized information becomes available. But this is a good trend.
The Interdependent Third Branch 