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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Courts - Still more on: "Kentucky will retain all court records forever"

Updating this ILB entry from Sept. 1, 2008, which included this quote from an Aug. 31, 2008 story by Jason Riley in the Louisville Courier Journal:

In April of last year, the state's top court administrator said Kentucky would retain all court records forever, a response to widespread criticism after tens of thousands of old Jefferson County files were destroyed.

But now the state archives building in Frankfort and courthouses across Kentucky are overflowing with files of misdemeanors and traffic cases that used to be destroyed.

Officials say they must come up with a different solution.

"We are just out of room," said Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. "We're drowning in paper."

So Minton has formed a committee ...

Today Mr. Riley reports:
After nearly two years in which Kentucky courts were forbidden from destroying any court files -- a response to widespread criticism after tens of thousands of old Jefferson County files were shredded -- the state Supreme Court has ruled that certain records may again be destroyed.

Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. said last year that the state was "drowning in paper" and formed a committee, led by Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Wine, to review how the state retains, archives or destroys court records.

Yesterday, Minton issued a statement saying the high court is following the first set of recommendations from the committee, which includes allowing old financial records and records in small claims and district court civil cases to be destroyed.

"This … is a good first step in determining how we should protect critical records while disposing of records that are no longer vital," Minton's statement said.

The committee's recent recommendations do not include what to do with misdemeanor and traffic cases, which were major concerns when it was revealed in 2006 that the Administrative Office of the Courts had destroyed such records in Jefferson County if they were at least 5 years old.

"All of those records are still being preserved," Wine said in an interview. "We are still deciding how to better retain and how long to retain" those cases. * * *

A report from a panel appointed by former Chief Justice Joseph Lambert in February 2007 blasted the Administrative Office of the Courts for "indifference, inexperience, intransigence and ineptness."

The panel condemned those officials for ignoring the importance of the records and for not realizing they could be stored cheaply in electronic formats.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 11, 2009 07:15 AM
Posted to Courts in general