GovNews Blog | Extract Systems

In my first blog post in this series about securing private information in digital court records, I discussed Florida’s long history of getting court documents online. Florida is still going through the process. It has, in fact, lagged behind many other states and the federal courts in successfully getting documents online.

Courts face this challenge daily - how do you put documents online and not violate the privacy of litigants? It’s no easy task. Court files are a literal treasure trove of private information. The Florida court system has struggled with this issue for a long time. Florida is somewhat unique in that it has two competing provisions in its constitution. One is a right to privacy. The other is Florida’s so-called Sunshine Law that makes virtually all of Florida’s public records open to the public. That includes court records. The problem is not limited to Florida. Every court faces the same issues. This is the first of five blog posts setting forth lessons learned from Florida’s almost fifteen-year experience putting documents online. Later articles in the series include recommended best practices using policy and technology tools such as intelligent redaction software to balance privacy and access.

The adoption of performance measures by the National Center for State Courts is driving courts to adopt performance measures so they can, among other things, establish a basis for accountability. The National Center sets forth the measures they adopted in CourTools. The measures can be found at: http://www.courtools.org. What does it take to implement these or another set of measures? Quality court records management is key in the implementation and evaluation of performance measures.

Measuring performance is key to any organization’s success. It is a universal truth embraced by private business and the majority of government entities – with one exception. Courts have been reluctant to adopt performance measures and where they have done so at all, it has been minimal. Recognizing that the lack of performance measures has made it difficult if not impossible for courts to prove their own success, the Chief Justices Conference of the National Center for State Courts adopted a set of performance measures for judging accountability called CourTools. The two sets of measures adopted by the conference, one for appellate courts and one for trial courts, provide balanced and realistic measurement tools that are critical to maintaining public trust and confidence in the courts.