Now, in some South Carolina counties the public is getting better access to its courthouse. The doors aren't staying open any longer, but the public information recorded in the courthouse is available around the clock.
Greenville County is in the process of making its civil and criminal court records available on the Internet. Charleston and Anderson counties already have court records available online.
Other counties should join this trend to bring the government to the people who pay for it.
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal said the ultimate goal is for all counties to have their court records available online, and linked to one another.
County courthouses and the judicial system should not be left behind as the positive impact of computers and the Internet change all facets of life.
Granted, there are a lot of court records that some people want to keep under wraps. Often, people would like to keep from the general public their bankruptcies, divorces, marriages, child-custody fights, and civil lawsuits. Sometimes those actions are deliberately filed outside one's home county so they are less likely to become public knowlege in the neighborhood. But the Internet access would make that information available with a few key strokes.
Regardless of changes in technology, the bottom line is that court information is public. It has always been available to anyone who takes the time and effort to search it out in the county courthouse. A number of people make a living by searching out public information for clients, such as employers or landlords who need background checks on individuals. That could change in the future as more court records are put online.
Many county courthouses have stood at the town square for generations, and they have seen many other changes through the years. No longer is the courthouse square filled with wagons when court is in session, with nearby vendors busy and farmers debating politics on benches beneath the trees. Times change, and the courthouse should change with them.
Charleston County has been putting court records on the Internet since 1998. It has made the courthouse more available to the people without major problems.
Even with the Internet access, protections are in place to keep private information private.
Beaufort County's jail now has records available on the Internet, one of the many signs that the public sector can and must keep up with realities of today's world.
We'd rather see the county courthouse function as a totally public place, not one that can function as a private stash of records that may be hard for the layman to track. Internet access to court records in all South Carolina counties would help make that change.