I'm in Orlando today, attending a meeting of the Florida Committee on Privacy and Court Records, so don't expect much blogging. We had to move the meeting to an airport hotel due to hurricane damage having knocked out the power at the original venue. I gather from the headlines in the local papers that the power is out all over the area.
This afternoon I'm to do a presentation on the collection and use of consumer data.
I’m at the meeting as well and I’m looking forward to your presentation.
Keep up the good blogging!
I’m at the meeting as well and I’m looking forward to your presentation.
Keep up the good blogging!
Just tossing this in because you got me thinking. I practice primarily family law, and so can certainly agree from the outset that personal information is definitely required in these filings, specifically the social security numbers of both parties to a suit where there are minor children for child support purposes, and the social security numbers of the children and their birthdates for the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, which could be used for identity theft purposes. As it stands now, in Palm Beach County, if your SS# appears in an online document, however (despite the now standing policy of not placing images of these documents online) it is your responsibility to request that the Clerk take it off.
At the same time, however, aside from the danger of identity theft, and even given the embarassing nature of many pleadings in an average family law file, I for one know that I would be able to offer faster and more complete representation (and certainly with fewer photocopying costs at the clerk’s office) were all documents available online. And if at least the latest judgments on child support and custody, visitation, etcetera are not available online, then any party seeking even a drastically necessary modification in the best interests of a child is required to locate their own copy.
Long story short, Professor, I sincerely hope you and the committee can find an easy fashion to allow the citizens of Florida this kind of ready and immediate access at least to the important documents in a file, those with lasting effect, those that may need to be quickly modified or examined later. Personally, I can’t see where the identity theft objection even survives with a simple requirement that the Notice of Social Security Number and UCCJEA, already offered as separate and distinct forms unrelated to the Petition and Final Judgment by our Supreme Court, were no longer allowed to be collapsed into a Petition for Dissolution or Modification, and if those separate filings were the sole part of the file of which no online image could be allowed.
Just imho, my $0.02.