December 2 UPDATE: The Pennsylvania Courts has posted the document, Electronic Case Record Public Access Policy.

Pennsylvania, which has one of the lowest ratings for access to public records as ranked by the Citizen Access Project, is standardizing its policy regarding electronic remote access to court records.

The new policy covers all electronic case record information maintained in the Pennsylvania Appellate Court Management System, Common Pleas Criminal Court Case Management System or Magisterial District Judge System.

A criminal case index and case dockets are currently searchable by defendant name for Common Pleas court. The new system will be implemented in January 2007, expanding the court coverage and listing full dates of birth. The policy statement will be available December 2 at the court Web site.