It's always the little things you tend to take for granted that you really should be the most thankful for having. Until recently, I had NO IDEA of how thankful I should be for the way Ohio courts have embraced and incorporated technology. In the last few weeks, however, I have had substantial exposure to the way things work court technologywise in... well let's just say, an adjacent State. I felt like I'd travelled back in time ten years or more and could hardly believe how inefficient it all seemed.
Among the modern technology I sorta thought EVERYBODY had was internet access to case docket sheets showing pleadings filed in particular cases. In fact, I sometimes groused because my local trial court's Clerk of Courts website -- unlike those in Cleveland and other areas of the state -- would ONLY allow me to see the name of the pleading and the date filed and might be a few days behind to boot. All federal courts (with a password) and many trial and appellate courts in Ohio also allow you to download from their Clerk of Court websites - immediately and for free (or at least at nominal cost) -- copies of the actual pleadings filed. And, in some Ohio courts I can even electronically file pleadings right from my computer.
Well, no, apparently that's not so normal in at least some other States. In this particular State bordering Ohio, some of the trial courts don't even have a website at all and one heckuva lot have NO internet access to docket sheets. Is this a big deal? Well it is if you're used to being able to answer your own questions quickly about service and what's been happening in a case with which you're not familiar, but now need to jump in as a pinch hitter.
Suddenly, I'm back to the time where I'd have to write a note to my secretary giving her the case number and party info, getting her to call the court and perhaps beg for information and/or documents BEFORE we sent them a search or copy fee, and if not successful, waiting hours, days, or weeks for information I need as a lawyer before I can decide what should be done next. And of course, if it's a few days or weeks later that the information finally comes in, now I have to refresh my memory about what the issue in the case was that made me ask for the information in the first place. Obviously, the additional time and effort now saved with implementation of modern technology is substantial. And it's only when that sort of access isn't available instantly that you truly appreciate the impact of technology on your practice of law.
Ohio has benefited from a substantial emphasis on the importance of courts implementing technology. When the Ohio Supreme Court first began surveying courts in 1989 about whether any technology was available and being used, less than two thirds of the courts even bothered to respond to the survey. In 1993, Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer created a program of direct technical assistance to trial and appellate courts in Ohio to support various initiatives and implementation programs.
As the bi-annual survey of technology use in Ohio courts continued, there has been a 100% participation response rate since 1996. Since 2002, all Ohio Clerks of Court have automated records and approximately 85% (and I would add from personal experence all major population centers) have websites of their own allowing some sort of access to case dockets.
For more detailed information on the progress and scope of the implmentation and integration of technology in Ohio courts, take a look at some of the bi-annual surveys:
There's also this interesting 2003 speech by the Chief Justice.
Technology has interjected itself slowly into the way I practice law and I haven't always initially been happy about changes it brought (I was orginally very NOT excited about electronic case filing aka ECF when that first came out - don't know how I managed without it now). But it seems to have worked out well in the end an I'm not going back.
Now I realize this isn't like world peace or anything, but in my day to day work life it matters. Personally, I have now sworn to never ever complain about my access to Ohio court records again.
