Manatee online court access model goes statewide

BRADENTON — The Manatee County method of providing access to online court records will go statewide, according to a Florida Supreme Court order.

The order says the Manatee model, overseen by Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller R.B. “Chips” Shore, is the best avenue for online access to court records without comprising security concerns. “That program was determined to have been successful in providing appropriate access to electronic court records while effectively protecting confidential information in an evaluation performed by the National Center for State Courts in 2011,” states the order, signed by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricky Polston.

The order states that any Florida clerk's office that seeks to provide online access to court records must follow the standards set forth in the Manatee model. Those standards include a special security matrix and following court-mandated redaction requirements on sensitive information, such as social security numbers. Clerks may choose to be more restrictive than the Manatee Model, a release from Shore's office states, but they may not be less so.

The order follows a 10-year moratorium on accessing certain court documents over a publicly available website. The court set that moratorium “to address concerns about sensitive and confidential information contained in these records,” according to the order.

“Since that time, I have been working diligently with the court to strike a balance between the public's right to access public information in the most efficient and cost-effective manner and our responsibility to safeguard confidential, private information,” Shore says in the statement. “I cannot tell you how proud I am of this collaborative effort to ensure the public has ready access to the non-confidential information guaranteed to them by the Florida Constitution.”