2005 GEORGIA BAR, MEDIA AND JUDICIARY CONFERENCE

The media gets another chance to have its say on online access to court records, but will it act?  A draft Georgia Supreme Court rule falls far short of 'just putting it all out there' for the citizens to find

By Tom Bennett

Atlanta, March 4, 2005 -- Two of the state's leading court clerks, Linda Pierce of Columbus-Muscogee County and Jay Stephenson of Cobb County, are willing to try again to bring the media aboard to define Internet access to court records.

Their offer to "resurrect" for further consideration the "Draft policy on Electronic Access to Trial Court Case Records for superior and state courts" was the biggest news of the 14th Georgia Bar, Media and Judiciary Conference March 4 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta.

"What I'm hoping we do is resurrect the task force, and also include media advocates," said Pierce, who is president of the Metropolitan Court Clerks Association of Atlanta.

Stephenson, her fellow association member, is the national innovator who led the Cobb court to place most records online. It was the first time in Georgia history the public gained a system designed to give free record access to copies of Superior Court records.

However, only the Cobb court has achieved such a reform, and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation is working to alert the state to what is at stake if others do not.

You can walk into court and get records -- those not exempted in 29 titles of the law. However, the access you enjoy on foot and in person would not be duplicated on the Internet.

The 1998-99 draft policy that could become a Georgia Supreme Court rule would close 17 record types arising from myriad aspects of public

life in Georgia. Among the public documents that, according to the draft,

"shall not be available for public access on the Internet," are:

-- records of the criminal proceedings "other than (i) the indictment, accusation, or citation, (ii) pleas and (iii) any order of the court":;

-- issuance or denial or an arrest or search warrant;

-- treatment by a dentist, nurse, mental health professional or physician; and

-- transcripts of the court reporter's notes or audio or videotape of a proceeding.

"WE ANTICIPATED some problems if we just put it all out there," Linda Pierce said.

Jay Stephenson added:

"What we've got are the public's open records... As a practical matter, we generated some safeguards."

Federal courts are years ahead in getting records online, and the trend there is "to put the onus on the litigants to exclude personal data," said Roger Chalmers of Atlanta's Arnall Golden & Gregory LLP.

"I"m for that," Stephenson said.

However, Pierce added: "Common sense dictates that we'll also have to do some review ourselves (to redact from cases the exempt data)."

A mid-March target date has been set for contacting the parties and schedule a conference to "resurrect" work on this draft rule.

Its hoped that this can draw into this process the print, broadcast and online media, plus the state's media bar.

The first round of talks entailed a good deal of travel, and Pierce said, "I hope people will be willing to come to Columbus this time."

A total of 135 persons registered for the conference. That number includes the 2005 Bar Media committee chaired by Peter Canfield of Atlanta's Dow Lohnes & Albertson. The theme this year was "Georgia and the First Amendment." Georgia Continuing Legal Education of Athens is the sponsor for the conference. For the third year in a row, it tied to that night's Weltner Freedom of Information Banquet, which is hosted by the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

The other workshops were about:

-- "Indecency, civility and the First Amendment";

-- "What's hot on campus; the academy and the First Amendment";

-- Open government;

-- Access to electronic records;

-- Government ethics;

-- Judicial speech; and

-- National security issues.

Staff writer Ken Foskett of the Journal-Constitution was the guest speaker. He is the author of "Judging Thomas: The life and times of Clarence Thomas."

Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, was the keynoter. The moderators for panels included Sheila Tefft of Emory University; Roger Chalmers of Arnall Golden & Gregory LLP; Richard Gard of the Fulton County Daily Report; Neil Kinkopf of Georgia State University; and Richard Griffiths of CNN.