Supreme Court advances push to share court records online

The Texas Supreme Court is pressing forward with its goal of putting court documents online, although not everyone is on board with the plan. The Texas Supreme Court is pressing forward with its goal of putting court documents online, although not everyone is on board with the plan. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Supreme Court advances push to share court records online 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN -- The Texas Supreme Court is pressing forward with its goal of making court documents accessible online in hopes of eventually availing those records to the public.

The state's high court on Tuesday issued an order adopting recommendations from the Judiciary Committee on Information Technology which suggests court records filed online be available to judges, attorneys on the case, and court and district clerks.

"I just think from the point of the view of the press and the public, transparency is a big deal and that's what we've got to try to work toward," Chief Justice Nathan Hecht said Tuesday.

The recommendations are part of a larger push by the Supreme Court to eventually make the records available through an online portal to the public instead of directly through a court clerk's office. Civil cases are already required to be filed online and criminal cases are set to be filed electronically by all courts by 2020.

Clerks across the state are opposed to shifting availability of the records to a centralized online database for fear they would lose out on revenue derived from printing fees and be stripped of their constitutional duties to manage the documents and safeguard against privacy concerns. Clerks have locked arms with at least 30 state lawmakers who are supporting legislation that would slow the database's implementation, a bill Hecht said would halt the plan to make records available to the public online.

For more on this issue, read our story "Lawmakers, clerks want to slow move to statewide court records system."