January 16, 2017      4:48 PM

Texas clerks object to statewide court filing database

“Convenience is not a sufficient public policy rationale to take away local government control from clerks and commissioners' courts and certainly doesn't trump privacy concerns regarding confidential information.”

Texas county and district clerks are not happy about the development of the statewide court record database called re:SearchTX, according to a letter obtained by Quorum Report.

Last week, the County and District Clerks’ Association of Texas sent that letter, signed by association president Celeste Bichsel, to Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht.

The letter explains that since early last year, the database has collected and stored all filings submitted to county and district courts through the system E-file Texas, the statewide electronic filing system.

The documents are accessible for judges, though they’ll soon also be available for attorneys, according to the re:SearchTX website. The letter says the “intent is to ultimately provide access to attorneys and the public to view and purchase court records.”

Bichsel said this potential public access, and related privacy concerns, is one of the biggest problems for the association.

By Eleanor Dearman

Copyright January 16, 2017, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved