The Colorado Board of Medical Examiners is expanding the range of information on doctors at its site. This data on new licensees is expected to be posted April 2008, but will only be gathered and posted for current licensees in 2009.

The following information will be disclosed:

* Name
* Aliases
* Current Address
* Telephone number
* Information regarding all medical licenses ever held
* Current Board Certifications
* Practice Specialty (ies)
* Affiliations with hospitals and health care facilities
* Current ownership interests in businesses
* Current employment contracts
* Public disciplinary actions against a medical license
* Agreements and Stipulations to temporarily cease medical practice
* Involuntary hospital or health care facility privileging actions
* Involuntary surrender of a DEA registration
* Criminal convictions or plea arrangements for felonies and crimes of moral turpitude
* Judgments, settlements and arbitration awards for medical malpractice claims
* Refusal by an insurance carrier to issue medical liability insurance

The Nevada Supreme Court has adopted rules for redacting and sealing court records. The court may order a file sealed or redacted for “identified compelling privacy or safety interests that outweigh the public interest in access to the court record.” The identity of the person who filed the motion to seal the court record must be recorded and kept a public record.

The Vermont Health Department is beginning the process of removing Social Security numbers from death certificates. In addition, proposed legislation would remove the cause of death from death certificates. Another bill would bar the posting of court cases on the Internet. Read all about it.

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.

The New York Attorney General site, Project Sunlight, makes many New York State public records accessible in one search. Conduct a name search simultaneously through corporation, charities, lobbyist, financial contributions and state contracts databases.

U.S. Passport Applications 1795-1925 have been collected together into one database that can be searched by name or date and other criteria. Ancestry.com has assembled this from U.S. government sources The images of original applications may include photographs, physical descriptions, country of origin, place of residence, travel companions, marriage status and affidavits of relatives.

Search the FamilySearch.org index of international birth, death and marriage records collected by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ProGenealogists collect links to international vital records that are searchable in online databases.

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.

There are many tasks that computers can do better than the mere shoe leather on the road. Today’s New York Times reports on research suggesting that computers make more accurate choices in decision making than company managers or human intuition. The companies that develop systems to aggregate disperate bits of relevant personal information and make it easily accessible win the day with investigators. ChoicePoint, among other investigative database providers, has recognized the value of computer software and content acquisition in employment screening, background investigations and financial profiling.

The company has recently absorbed established businesses in vital records management and financial tracking software, keeping tabs on financial borrowers’ activity (epolicy, Inc. too).

Information-service provider ChoicePoint is looking to expand its insurance-verification services with the acquisition yesterday of Insuratec Inc.

Danville, Calif.-based Insuratec notifies lenders of changes to borrowers’ auto, mortgage, motorcycle, and watercraft insurance policies.

The mega data broker has sloughed off businesses outside of this model — such as a DNA lab.

The ChoicePoint division, ChoiceTrust, has an online site where you can instantaneously retrieve free profiles of your auto and home insurance. A self-check of public records data is available by mail.

The California congressional representative from San Diego, Susan Davis, has sponsored HR 5494, Identity Theft Protection for the Deceased Act. The bill would require the credit bureaus flag the files of the deceased for whom they have records in order to reduce the chances that the decedent’s SSN will be used to open new accounts. Reasonable enough.

In her comments on the legislation, Davis alludes to the SSDI, a free online data source of social security numbers, dates of birth and dates of death, which she claims could be useful to fraudsters who “can collect this information with relative ease giving them a study supply of Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, and the information they need to commit these horrible crimes.” The bill could yet be amended to prohibit the dissemination of the Social Security Death Index by the Social Security Administration. The data is made available, for free, on the Internet by various outlets including, RootsWeb.

The local San Diego broadcast TV station, 10news.com, has taken it upon itself to request that the SSA remove the Death Index from its Web site.

The Oklahoma Administrative Office of the Courts issued an advisory on its Web site that marriage licenses are still required to list the parties social security number.

In light of recent legislation and questions about the need to collect social security numbers from marriage license applicants, I wanted to provide you with some guidance on this issue. In 1997, the Oklahoma Legislature amended 43 O.S. §6 which details the content of marriage licenses, requiring the social security number, if any, of each marriage applicant. Unless this statute is amended again in the future, you must continue to require social security numbers on your Applications for Marriage License.

The San Bernardino County, California Coroner has a searchable database of “unclaimed persons”, people who died in California where no next of kin was identified. A search by full or partial name returns dates of birth, place of birth, last known address and governmental agency handling the case.

The International Center for Unidentified & Missing Persons maintains a state-by-state list of Jane and John Does.

The online Missouri Death Certificates index covers 1910-1955.

The index can be searched by first name and last name, county, and by year and month. Once a name is selected, a digitized image of the original certificate can be retrieved.

Legislative action to open the original birth certificates of adoptees is making its way through the Connecticut General Assembly. The bill, An Act Providing Adult Adopted Persons with Access to Information in Original Birth Certificates, would make the birth records available to the adoptee and to approved researchers. Maybe investigators or genealogists in Connecticut could comment on the requirements to be an approved party.