The New York Court of Appeals supported the private real property data vendor, Data Tree, in its quest to secure an electronic version of property records. New York Court of Appeals Rejects Reporters Committee Rationale, Access Reports, December 20, 2007.

The Minnesota Association of County Officers is seeking the participation of Minnesota county Recorders to create an online marriage index database.

Vermont real property tax forms are now sent to Vermont town clerks rather than the homeowner, which makes this form a public record. These documents list the amount of tax reductions given to homeowners based on income, enabling one to estimate a household’s income.

Search court trial records statewide for Minnesota, including criminal civil, probate and family law. A search for judgments is also here.

The Ohio Supreme Court has proposed rule changes that will redefine the term “public records” and affect access to court case records [See”Proposed amendments to the Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio Rules 44-47] Suggested changes include:

(a) Redacting the case information rather than limiting public access to the entire record;

(b) Limiting remote access to either the case record or case information while
maintaining its public access;

(c) Limiting public access to either the case record or case information for a specific period of time;

(d) Using a generic title or description for the case record or case information in a case management system or register of actions;

(e) Using initials or other identifier for the parties’ proper names.

Read the court summary.

The open records advocacy group, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, has released a study of the consequences of restrictive and open adoption laws. The Institute concludes that new adoption laws that have given adoptees and birth parents access to the original birth certificates has advanced the policy debate “from speculation about the appropriateness, wisdom and impact of such legal changes to a more-informed consideration of their personal, practical and social effects on real people’s real lives.”

The Los Angeles County Superior Court has ruled that church personnel files of priests accused of molesting children may be released to the public, whether or not there was a criminal prosecution. The decision affects a small number of clergy but tips the balance in favor of the public right to know over privacy, which could affect many other cases.

Santa Clara County, California is continuing to fight a Superior Court determination that its GIS mapping should be easily available to the public at low cost. Meanwhile, Greenwich, Connecticut has assented to that state’s Supreme Court ruling and will post aerial photographs of the town on its Web site. Both government agencies used the specious defense that freely available geographic information systems maps were a security risk.

Folks in North Carolina may want to comment at the blog of a county Register who removed vital records from the Internet, then wrote about it.

The state police can demand lists of email activity conducted by a business if they deem it relevant to an investigation, according to an opinion by the Nebraska Attorney General. This includes “non content” records retained by providers of electronic communication services, such as ISP records of email headers, but not the email message.

Search the New York local civil court records by index number, party name, attorney/firm or judge. Some courts are online now and others will be added through the year.

Appeals filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court and the Minnesota Court of Appeals are now searchable online. More extensive information is available for cases filed after March 2003.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that county clerks are required to remove social security numbers from documents before releasing them to the public. The outcry from county clerks, subsequently from legislators, has forced him to put a 60 day hold on enforcement while the legislators review the consequences of this sweeping directive.

Administrative rules adopted by the Arkansas Supreme court affirm public access to court records while shielding Social Security numbers. The Arkansas courts were also directed to make dockets, judgments, orders, or decrees accessible to the public online. Reported by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

The Plumas County California GIS Parcel Viewer application is online. Construct a topographical map of terrain features, locate real property by APN or street address and label and measure distances between features.

Minnesota state Sen. Julianne Ortman, has sponsored legislation that “would explicitly allow under statute the sealing of most conviction, arrest and other criminal justice documents held by the courts and state and local government agencies” according to the Star Tribune. Some serious felonies would be excluded. SF 294 would require employers tell prospective employees that expunged records do not have to be identified.

The Minnesota Methamphetamine Offenders Registry was approved last July but has just come online this year. A search can be done with an exact match on the last name, or select a county to identify all records. Other states have approved the creation of a database of people convicted of manufacturing meth but only Tennessee currently has this boutique criminal records site.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also maintains other criminal offender databases.

The Ohio Supreme Court has affirmed that juvenile court proceedings must be open to the public. The decision also requires a public hearing before any juvenile matter brought before courts is conducted in secret. Reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Ohio legislature has approved SB17, mandating that the attorney general establish an Internet civil registry of individuals for whom a declaratory judgment has been issued, “finding that the person would have been liable for assault or battery based on childhood sexual abuse but for the expiration of the limitation period.” The Toledo Blade reports on this first-of-a-kind registry that identifies suspected sex offenders who have not been criminally or civilly prosecuted.

The bill also makes protection orders or consent agreements that have been issued in any one county available in all others.

Minnesota Secretary of State adds address information to their online corporation search.

The recently enacted national sex offender registry legislation, HR 4472, Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, will add convicted child molesters to the registry and require all states to notify residents of sex offender registrants.

New York adds level 2 sex offenders to its registry. The Florida site has added more details on the convictions of registrants. The future state of the registry for Missouri is in flux since the Missouri Supreme Court decided that current registrants convicted prior to 1995 do not have to update their address information.

Minnesota is now the third state to approve a registry of methamphetamine manufacturers, following on the heels of the Tennessee registry, which is already on the Web. The Illinois registry has been signed into law but is not yet online.