Florida Supreme Court Limits Information in Court Files

For more than five years, Manatee County has been piloting a program to allow online public access to court records.

As part of an experiment that started with online subscription access only, Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller was allowed to put certain court-approved documents online. After the first four years, Manatee County's court records were opened to the public last year. Still, not all of the records are viewable online.

One of the requirements for the pilot program was testing and confirmation to ensure the software effectively blacks out, or redacts, confidential information to safeguard individuals from crimes such as identity theft or fraud.

While Manatee County adopted the pilot program so that other counties can gauge its safety and effectiveness, a committee appointed to evaluate the system has not made a recommendation, and other court systems have not yet adopted online records.

And just this month, in an effort to ensure the balance between protecting an individual’s private information with the public’s right to information under the Sunshine laws, the Florida Supreme Court specified what private information can be kept in online court documents.

The Supreme Court opinion adopted the following new rules for court documents:

• Minors can only be identified by their initials.
• Only the year of a person’s birth can be included.
• No portion of any Social Security Number, bank account, debit card or credit card can be entered unless allowed by another statute or exception.
• Only the last four digits of a phone number, driver’s license number or passport may be included.

Attorneys and people who represent themselves in court have until Oct. 1 to comply with new rules designed to minimize the amount of private information in court records.

Shore said that information has already been redacted from Manatee County's online records, offering more protection than paper documents which are open and available to the public in every county.

He hopes the new Supreme Court ruling will finally help move other counties toward keeping court records online.

“We look forward to working with our attorneys and citizens who represent themselves in court as these new rules take effect," Shore said. "These rules are a step in a positive direction for the citizens of Florida. The Court cares deeply about protecting private information while, at the same time, recognizing the efficiency and importance of making court documents available online.”

Shore said making the records available electronically across every county, will save the state time and money because workers will spend  less time looking up and providing physical records to lawyers, judges and the public who will be able to access them online.

A committee reviewing the pilot program was supposed to have made a recommendation on whether to adopt the online system in May, Shore said, but that has been delayed until September.

Shore said the process of waiting for approval has been frustrating.

"I have no idea when it will be released," he said. "Some judges don't want it. I don't think they understand how well protected the documents are. They are more protected than when they were in paper."

He added some judges may be afraid they might have to go to electronic documents on the bench when they are used to having the clerks offices pull all of the documents for them.

Shore and Judge Lee E. Haworth, the chief judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit, produced a 25-minute video on the effectiveness of the pilot program. The Supreme Court's 289-page opinion is also available online.