Criminal Justice

Court documents available online;
e-filing too costly to implement

April 13, 2004

DES MOINES, Iowa -- If it were up to Rebecca Colton, lawyers would be able to file court papers in their underwear.

But implementation of an e-filing system, which would allow attorneys and clients to file court papers from their personal computer desktops, is a luxury Iowans probably won't have anytime soon.

An estimated $19 million is needed to get such a system up and running, according to government officials.

"We have plans to go completely online; we're just waiting for funding," Colton said, an Iowa Judical system spokeswoman. "It has kind of been tabled since the state's budget problems."

Employing an e-filing system means legal documents would be scanned and then submitted electronically to the necessary court offices. The scanned documents would likely be transmitted in Portable Document Format, or PDF, Colton said.

In the meantime, Iowans may not be able to file legal documents electronically, but they have access to databases of records from courts in each of Iowa's 99 counties.

County attorneys, probation officers and government officials are among those who receive the service free from the state.

But many attorneys and court officials insist the online records serve as more of a reference tool for the public than an aid for prosecutors trying to put offenders behind bars.

"This is primarily beneficial to the public," Colton said. "People like judges and lawyers already have access to this information."

Like a paper court-case file, the online records track the status of a case as it moves forward through the court. As petitions, motions and orders are filed, court employees update the online records. The system also tracks the payment of moving violations and court-designated fines such as child support.

Assistant Iowa County Attorney Tim McMeen said he rarely uses the service for anything other than checking the status of fines.

"We pretty regularly check on that," McMeen said. "But other than that, we don't get on there a great deal."

McMeen, who is based in Marengo, said attorneys who serve rural areas routinely use the service in that way, but since legal documents must be filed on paper, most attorneys have little need to use the service for other reasons.

"It's very basic information," said Colton. "You don't get full documents."

But that doesn't matter, said Larry Murphy, director of information technology for the Iowa Judicial System. The goal of the system, he said, is to provide the public with easier and faster access to the court system.

"It's a matter of public access," Murphy said. "It's a response to citizens wanting more information at their fingertips."

Iowa court records are pulled from 99 databases - that's one for each county. Murphy and a staff of about 50 people make sure the computer servers run healthily and files have room to grow, he said.

Each time legal documents are filed, the clerk of court's office has 48 hours to enter the new data into the system.

"Most clerks are compliant, in fact, I'd say they beat that," Murphy said. "In busier counties, it can be a problem."

Johnson County is an example of a busier county, where the county attorney's office doesn't use the system.

"Computers are only as good as what you put in them," said Danelle Essing, office manager for the Johnson County Attorney's office. "We go through the traditional ways to get certified documents because that's what we need in court."

Any time the Iowa Legislature changes privacy laws that pertain to court records, Murphy and the information technology staff must modify computer programs to meet the new guidelines, Murphy said.

Iowa's online court records have their roots in a nearly decade-old computer system that manages case files and allows users from courthouses across the state to remotely access the same computer files.

The case management system, known as the Iowa Court Information Network or ICIS, allowed users at courthouses in all 99 Iowa counties to connect to legal documents filed anywhere in the state.

Talk of implementing the statewide system first surfaced in 1986, Murphy said.

In 1999, Polk County became the first to join the ICIS system.

To simplify the start-up process, courts began putting new filings online.

"We picked a point in time and went forward from there," Murphy said. "We don't have that issue of trying to enter old data."

The Iowa Judicial System's databases receive 200,000 hits a day, Colton said.

A steady base of continuous subscribers also uses the service, she said. These include lawyers, abstracters and criminal investigation firms.

The largest group of users subscribe to the service on a monthly basis.

"We think they're mostly just private citizens who get on to check various records," Colton said.

Scores of companies access online court records to do background checks on prospective employees. There are loopholes, however.

A less than thorough background check might yield incomplete results, as was the case in 2003 when then Des Moines Area Community College President David England was charged with marijuana possession.

An investigation found that a secretary who had been asked to perform background checks on DMACC presidential finalists in 2001 had been confused by the system. As a result, she didn't discover that England's record showed a blemish.

After England's arrest in March 2003, a search of online court and criminal records databases by Des Moines Register reporters turned up on England's record - a prior drug-related conviction not uncovered by DMACC's background check. England was arrested in 1971 for marijuana possession when he was a 19-year-old college student in Texas.

The Texas native resigned in March 2003 after he was arrested for marijuana possession.

"Within 15 minutes we discovered he had had previous drug-related charges," said reporter Frank Santiago. "You could look up Martha Stewart's court records in New York from your desktop here."

Some people love the system, others hate it, Murphy said.

"We've gotten responses from people who have one crime on there who were displeased we have their records on there for everyone to see," Murphy said. "We also have people who want more information on there.

"We get lots of e-mail saying,'This is great,'" he added.

Implementing an e-filing system would cost $19 million, state government officials estimate.

It's a project a cash-strapped state can't afford, said Colton, the Iowa Judicial System spokeswoman.

But Colton insists that the future of the Iowa Judicial System rests on those seven letters and a hyphen.

There would still be court files. But they would be digital.

E-filing would simplify certain aspects of filing procedures, but many court actions are too complicated and specific to individual cases for basic Internet conventions such as forms to be used, Colton said.

"We don't have many court proceedings that boil down to simple forms," Colton said. "For example, if someone is filing a petition, it can get really long."

E-filing may be the wave of the future for courthouses across the state and the country.

Beginning March 1, 2004, Iowa's Northern District of federal courts became the sixteenth federal court district to require all court documents to be filed electronically. The district includes places such as Cedar Rapids.

The new e-filing system means no more rushing to file papers before the clerk of court's office closes. But some legal documents - those from prisoners or certain types of defendants - would still be filed on paper, court officials said.

"I think there's growing support (in the Legislature) for this," Colton said. "Unfortunately, the state just doesn't have money for these types of projects."