Editorial: Municipal courts lack transparency, need online access

It’s time.

In the interests of full transparency with the public, it’s time that municipal courts throughout the state open their operations to the public in the same manner as district courts throughout the state already have.

Case in point is the Loveland Municipal Court, but the situation applies statewide. The Loveland court’s operations have recently come into public review because of the filing of two municipal lawsuits since the first of the year alleging violations of the Loveland City Charter. But far be it from the public having easy access to those cases.

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First, as is the case with courts throughout the state, the municipal court including its clerk’s office is located behind security.

Second, none of the court’s records are accessible to the public online. That includes the court’s docket or schedule, which is posted in a public hallway. Behind security.

Filings aren’t readily available unless a member of the public visits the administrator’s office. And it would appear from actually trying to do that, that not all of the members of the administrator’s office have easy access to filings, orders and updates. Often requests need to go through one specific person, who may or may not be in the office.

Determining when hearings will be heard requires going to the administrator’s office to ask. To determine whether cases have been filed, or answers have been filed, or motions have been filed, or notices by attorneys about who is handling cases on behalf of either party, or whether orders have been filed or the multiple other actions that routinely happen in connection with lawsuits — all require a trip to the administrator’s office to ask. If the public knows what to request.

The administrator’s office in Loveland Municipal Court is cooperative over the phone, but again it requires knowing what to ask and when to ask.

If court records were placed on line as other courts throughout the nation do, it removes the mystery and opens the process to the public, which it is entitled to see.

The administrator’s office is doing the best it can, we’re sure, with what it has, but it’s time that an investment be made in court transparency by putting records available to the public online.

Understanding of how the courts work and what decisions are made, or not made, are critical to maintaining the public trust.