What do Dallas, Galveston, Harris and other Texas county courts have that Jefferson County's doesn't? Transparency.
Online transparency, that is. An easily accessible and navigable website that allows ordinary citizens to review court records of civil litigation from home, the office, cell phones, etc.
Anyone can access Jefferson County District Court records if they really want to, but they have to go to the district clerk's office in the courthouse during regular working hours on a weekday and sit in front of a stone-age computer terminal with a black screen and green characters. It's not exactly user-friendly, much less convenient.
“Public records should be available to anyone – especially when technology permits,” contends Port Arthur attorney Langston Adams. “Those records are stored digitally. There’s no technological reason why they shouldn’t be available to the public online.”
Jefferson County District Clerk Jamie Smith reports that court records are available online for attorneys, but are not accessible to the general public due to “budget constraints.” Apparently, there are insufficient funds for the necessary redaction of personal markers like Social Security numbers, home addresses, etc.
Of course, privacy concerns would seem to apply to the current onsite system as well, which suggests that they have somehow been overcome, or that they're not especially grave concerns to begin with.
In any case, there must be an affordable software program out there that could address these concerns by identifying personal markers as they're entered and suppressing them from online public databases.
Smith says he's looking for an economical solution, but is he looking hard enough? He could start by asking counterparts in other Texas counties – or in other states – how they solved the problem.
Maybe some of them have more substantial funding, and maybe some are more resourceful. Whatever the explanation, it's clear that quite a few of them were committed enough to transparency to make it happen.
Perhaps some public-spirited techies will offer Smith suggestions on how to achieve his avowed goal.