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State Information Access:
Posted September 4
Why is the Colorado Supreme Court Still in the Dark Ages on Access to Court Records?
By Ryan Ross
Getting records from the federal courts from any case anywhere in the country is a breeze. Once you subscribe to the service facilitating access, you can get complete documents at the click of a button or two, for most cases filed since 2005.
The Colorado courts, by contrast, are stuck in the past. The state Supreme Court is dragging its feet on providing electronic access to court files.
Oh, if you’re a lawyer you can get access to e-filed cases. But the public is out-of-luck. There is no e-access for non-lawyers, and apparently no plans to provide it. I’ve asked. I can’t get any answers. It’s apparently a taboo subject.
A court administrative department official I’ve corresponded with tells me the department is in the process of providing e-access to court records for pro se litigants, and expects to have that sometime next year. But that still leaves the public with no choice but to go to courthouses.
And the public won’t have much luck getting e-filed electronically even in courthouses. The court official I’m corresponding with assures me I can get e-access to electronically filed cases in “most” major county courthouses. Nope. He needs to get out more often. Such access is available in El Paso and Arapahoe counties, but not in Douglas, Boulder, Adams, Jefferson or Denver counties (I haven’t checked Larimer, Weld or Pueblo counties lately).
The state court official says local court officials have to purchase and maintain separate DSL lines to provide courthouse access to e-filed cases. It’s not clear whether the hang-up is $$$, but one thing is clear: local courts (except for muny courts) get their &&& from the state, so if $$$ is the problem the state apparently isn’t ponying up.
This is, alas, typical for the state Supreme Court justices, who’ve demonstrated with their rule prohibiting access to many court files that they are more interested in keeping the public from knowing what goes on in court cases than it is in providing the public access state law requires. When you’re the Supreme Court, you can get away with whatever you want to get away with, the law be damned.
Colorado will one day, of course, join the 21st century and provide e-access to court cases for everyone from anywhere.
Just don’t hold your breath waiting for that day.
