33rd / 424th District Courts

I had always thought (well, almost always) that it would be useful to have case information accessible via the internet. In Burnet County within the 33rd real property records are available from the County Clerk on a limited basis and some clerk's offices in Texas have online case indexes that will retrieve selective data.

But there have been two problems: (1) budgetary limitations and (2) the nagging question of whether it's really a good idea to put case details on the web.

In thinking further about this I've stumbled across an excellent discussion from wired.com treating the issue of exposing a lot of highly personal information to the unlimited appetite of the internet, as opposed to people having to drive to the courthouse to obtain it.

The wired piece makes for quick but provocative reading and discussion here would be in order.

There is even a project of the National Center for State Courts on Public Access to Court Records. The billing is

As you will see from the Public Access site there are many studies nationwide on the topic, but none in Texas. The only treatment of access to judicial records in Texas was Rule 12 to the Rules of Judicial Administration regarding only the non-judicial records (i.e. the purely administrative) and does not address at all the case information in the clerk's file. I have not reviewed those studies and hearings to see if there is a concensus. If someone does, post it here, please.

"JJ"