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Thursday, September 02, 2010

Ind. Courts - More on: Court charges for miscellaneous services and the race for the Judicial Nominating Commission

In this April 29, 2010 entry the ILB noted and commented upon the "Order governing fees charged by clerk of courts for miscellaneous services" that had been issued April 26, 2010 by the Supreme Court. ILB reader attention was directed to the $1.00/page change for copies of documents, an amount that is not acceptable in the other governmental branches. In addition, the April 29th entry continued:

Another item that caught my attention was this: $150.00 -- CD containing Roll of Attorneys database.
As those of you who are attorneys are no doubt aware, the most recent annual registration mailing from the Clerk of the Courts for the first time requested attorneys' e-mail addresses in addition to the other information. I naturally wondered whether the submitted e-mail addresses would be available via the Roll of Attorneys, as addresses and phone numbers currently are.

"No", I was told, when I contacted the Clerk of the Courts on August 25. And neither would they be available on the CD containing the Roll of Attorneys database.

Seemingly re-emphasizing that point, on August 27th the Supreme Court reissued the "Order governing fees charged by clerk of courts for miscellaneous services," including this change:

$150.00 -- CD containing Roll of Attorneys database (except that the CD shall not include attorney electronic mail addresses, nor shall it contain attorney home addresses unless the home address is the only address listed for the attorney in the Roll of Attorneys)
My thoughts: E-mail addresses are apparently thought to be more sensitive than telephone numbers or street addresses. My biggest issue with this is that it favors some attorneys who may choose to run for positions such as the Judicial Nominating Commission.

Creating mailing labels is simple using the Roll of Attorneys database. But sending a mailing to thousands of Indiana attorneys is costly, favoring attorneys with deep pockets or those backed by well-funded organizations. If e-mail addresses had been made available to candidates this year when more attorneys than ever seem to be interested in competing, the playing field would have been leveled.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 2, 2010 02:51 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts