Concerns raised about posting domestic violence records online May 15, 2003 Jan Pudlow Associate Editor Regular News Concerns raised about posting domestic violence records online Associate EditorNow that the big job of balancing privacy and public right to access issues with online court records is back at the Florida Supreme Court, Robin Hassler Thompson hopes her concerns about domestic violence victims will be heard.Thompson, senior public policy consultant for the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, was a Senate president appointee to the legislative Study Committee on Public Records. But she was a non-voting advisory representative, and at times, she said, “I felt like a voice in the wilderness.”When the committee issued its report February 15 — calling for a two-year moratorium going online with “certain court records not part of the official records” as determined by the Supreme Court — there was no mention of Thompson’s concerns about protecting battered women from having their addresses adrift on the Web, making it easy for their abusers to track them down.So she wrote a minority report, but it was not included on the Florida government Web page www.myflorida.com along with the final report of the Study Committee on Public Records. (See April 15 Bar News for a story on the final report.)“They didn’t deal with it,” Thompson said. “Both in the state and nationally, there is a great deal of concern about domestic violence records online.”The bottom line, Thompson wrote in her minority report, is that “public interest in access to public or court records simply should not supercede the safety and privacy interests of domestic violence victims and their children.”Because the courts are a “primary forum for battered women to achieve the safety and independence to which they are entitled by law,” Thompson says, “any policy established by the courts or others must not undermine these essential promises of the legal system.“That is why I am deeply concerned that the Final Report of the Study Committee on Public Records fails to address the very real dangers that victims of domestic violence face when the courts and other systems do not keep information about the victims and the victims’ children confidential. Identifying and personal information about victims of domestic violence is found in court filings, official records, and agency records. Public and Internet access to this information enables perpetrators to locate, stalk, and even kill their victims.”Knowing that information will be easily available online, Thompson argues, could keep victims from going to court to file injunctions for protection against domestic violence. She said such information can also be used against battered women by discrimination in housing, employment, insurance, and other matters.Any future efforts dealing with online court records, Thompson recommends, should focus on the following:• Permanently exclude injunction for protection and family law court records and official records from remote access.• Allow victims of domestic violence of other violent crimes to exclude official and court records from remote access — and in some cases public access — if they contain information that would jeopardize their safety.“This information should be excluded from the time of request through the court’s determination, with very clear and predictable qualifying standards,” Thompson wrote.• Information that is protected from remote access must not be disclosed through summary court documents, such as docket sheets. She cites a report from the National Network to End Domestic Violence that says: “Even a victim’s name coupled with the name of the court in which she has filed a petition gives an abuser all the information he needs to track her down.”• Make sure judges and lawyers are educated about how to create final judgments so personal identifying and sensitive information is minimized.• In cases under F.S. Ch. 61, the law allows a party to furnish his or her address to the court in a separate confidential filing if, for safety reasons, the party requires that the location of current residence be confidential.• Encourage courts to develop processes for preventing and remedying failures to properly exclude information from public access, such as conducting regular technology audits, and removing information that was posted online in error.• Make sure litigants and victims groups are notified about electronic record keeping, including whether the information may be disclosed, to whom it may be disclosed, the steps the person can take to limit disclosure of their information, how long their information will be retained, how to correct inaccuracies, and what protections are in place to guard against inaccuracies.As Jonathan D. Kaney, Jr., general counsel for the First Amendment Foundation and vice chair of the legislature’s Study Committee on Public Records, said in summing up the main final report: “What we want the court to do is tailor the moratorium so it deals with problematic categories of files, such as family law files or juvenile files. I know they will want input from the clerks before drafting an order on Internet restrictions. . . . This process needs to be a clear and open process.”Thompson said she hopes to be a voice in that process, too.She embraces the philosophy of the National Network to End Domestic Violence that “respectfully requests that victim and witness identities receive the same amount of protection as a judge’s notes, a court clerk’s health insurance claims, and a business’ revenue projections.”The NNEDV went on say: “The sad truth is that victims of domestic violence are never truly safe. Even if a victim manages to escape her batterer, and relocate to a new city or state, she constantly looks over her shoulder to ensure that she’s not been found. And she has good reason — batterers devote tireless energy to seeking out victims who have fled. Some abusers want to locate their victim so that they can continue to inflict physical injury. Others want to emotionally abuse their victims by stealing their identities and wreaking havoc in their lives. The World Wide Web is far and away abusers’ best tool for finding and continuing to harm their victims.”
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