Conference endorses new records access
on Mar 13, 2007 at 3:12 pm
The U.S. Judicial Conference, a judiciary policymaking group headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., on Tuesday endorsed a pilot project lasting up to a year to make audio recordings of federal trial courts’ proceedings available online. Without objection, the Conference supported a committee proposal for District Courts to make audiotapes available through the existing PACER system of access to federal court records. Initially, access will be free, Conference sources said.
The recordings will be digital audiotapes, in use since 1999 in keeping records of District Court proceedings. Now, such tapes are available on a case-by-case basis through purchase from court clerks’ offices.
Where the pilot program will be tried is up to the discretion of District Court judges. The courts to take part have not yet been selected, but are expected to be made up of courts where judges volunteer to be included. Both criminal and civil proceedings will be included, under the present plan.
Among other actions by the Conference at its semi-annual meeting at the Supreme Court, it urged federal courts to show clearly on public dockets when a case had been put under seal, rather than using the entry now used by some courts for a sealed case, saying “case does not exist.” District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, chairman of the Judicial Conference’s Executive Committee, said that designation “looks like the court is trying to hide cases,” so a clear indication should be made on a court docket to show that a case does exist, but is out of reach because under seal. The Conference reacted to a study by the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press, which found a number of cases that did in fact exist were shown on dockets as not existing. “The Reporters’ Committee did us a good favor,” Judge Hogan said.
The Conference also urged Congress to create 67 new federal judgeships — 15 for the courts of appeals, and 52 for the district courts.
