In the wake of a global health crisis and out of concern for public health, state judiciaries have suspended most proceedings since courthouses are usually converging points for hundreds of people in varying degrees of physical contact.
Before the pandemic, physical inquiry at the court where the case was filed was the primary way to access court records. Alternatively, some states such as Florida and Vermont, made official search tools available for searchers. However, the ease of transmission of the coronavirus meant that physical inquiry was no longer safe since it involves touching surfaces and being close proximity to other people at the courthouse.
Thus following the declaration of a state of national emergency and the issue of administrative orders by state judiciaries, non-essential activities have been suspended. In lieu of physical inquiry, online access will now perform several functions. It will also help flatten the curve since searchers do not have to leave their homes.
Remote access to publicly-available information has become indispensable during COVID-19. Public records include documents relating to lawsuits, civil judgments, death records, birth records, marriage, and divorce records as well as criminal records and police reports. Maintenance of these records is usually by government-run agencies but they are also available on private search engines such as http://www.staterecords.org.
By nature, hard copies of public records are typically hard to find since many are not maintained in a central repository. Thus, a searcher has to shuttle between several locations to obtain the records they seek. During COVID-19, this not only increases the risk of exposure but also results in potential widespread of the infection.
Public records search engines have overcome these challenges to deliver the most refined public records search experience. And they function similarly to a typical web search. First, a user provides a piece of information, such as a name, and the engine queries millions of records on its database. Then it returns a list of public records that are connected to that parameter.
Unlike a typical web search that returns results requiring the searcher to determine which is most useful, search engines that specialize in public records services use sophisticated technology to filter inaccurate, outdated, and duplicative information such that only relevant results are displayed. By providing additional parameters such as last name, city, or state, the engine can further pinpoint the record(s) of interest.
Meanwhile, several state governments are stepping up citizens’ access to public information. For example, Virginia’s judiciary enabled a statewide search function on its website to access court records. The system allows searchers to find docket information about criminal and traffic charges as far back as 1990 by just providing a defendant’s name.
Previously, although these records were available online, searches were limited to specific courthouses. This meant to find a court record, searchers had to either know where charges were filed or conduct hundreds of individual searches. Other states including South Dakota, Texas, and Florida now have this functionality.
