Press Herald and other media companies say courts still delay access to records illegally sunjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sunjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The updated lawsuit by the Press Herald and other news organization says the attempt by the Maine court system to remedy delayed access to digital filings 'replaces one First Amendment violation with another.'
The Penobscot County (Maine) Courthouse. (Courthouse News via Wikipedia)
(CN) A cult-like adherence to the notion of “practical obscurity” for electronic court records is dead. Or is it.
In black and white, Maine’s new restriction on access to electronic court records exposes the tarnished bones of an old battle. It is the most blatant example yet of an American court walking forward on technology and in synchronous motion walking backward on transparency.
A court committee itself operating in secrecy put a new rule in place in December that says nobody can look at electronic court records until three days after they are served. Asked by a reporter how long the blackout period runs, the counter clerk in Penobscot Superior Court in Bangor said, “Ninety days.”
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Press Herald joins federal lawsuit as Maine newspapers sue over delay in access to civil complaints
The federal lawsuit challenges a rule allowing digital civil court filings to remain secret for weeks or even months after they are filed.
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The Portland Press Herald and the Sun Journal have joined a new federal lawsuit challenging a rule that allows civil cases in Maine’s electronic court records system to be secret for weeks or even months after they are filed.
Courthouse News Service, a national outlet that reports on civil court proceedings, filed the complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The companies that own the Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and Sun Journal are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.