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Privacy and Public Access to Court Records - State Policy
Protection of Social Security Numbers
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Privacy and Public Access to Court Records - State Policy
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| Impact: |
The growing use of the Web to access judicial records has forced courts to re-examine their traditional open record policies.
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| Summary: |
Privacy and public access to government records is expected to be a major focus for debate in Congress over the next several years. The debate has been fueled on the domestic front by a growing public concern with identity theft, exploitation of personal information for commercial purposes, confidentiality of medical records, and public access to individual financial records. International trade is also driving the debate because of the differences in approach between the United States and the European Community (EC). U.S. public policies have emphasized open records, the EC the privacy of the individual. The differences in policies have critical implications for the future development of communications systems and of information exchanges on a broad
scale.
Guidelines for policy development by state courts in this area were developed in 2001 and 2002 with funding from SJI (SJI-01-N-054 and SJI-02-N-007) and staff from NCSC and JMI; reviewed by CCJ and COSCA members several times during 2002; approved by an advisory committee drawn from CCJ, COSCA, AJA, NACM, NCMC, media, privacy advocates, law enforcement, and commercial interests; and endorsed by CCJ and COSCA by Resolution on August 1, 2002.
The final report "Developing CCJ/COSCA Guidelines for Public Access to Court Records: A National Project to Assist State Courts" was released in October 2002. NCSC and JMI are applying for additional funding from SJI to further develop areas of the Guidelines and to refine "lessons learned" from the states that have informed and used the Guidelines.
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| Position: |
No formal position
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| References:
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| Support
Materials:
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No additional materials
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Privacy and Public Access to Records
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Protection of Social Security Numbers
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| Impact: |
Social security numbers (SSN) are present in many state court documents and files. Federal legislation prohibiting the unconditional acquisition and "display" of SSNs to the public would place a burden on some courts in maintaining these files as open public records.
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| Summary: |
Last session's bill, S. 848, identified 11 documents that must be redacted. They are: death certificates, professional and occupational licenses, property settlement documents, birth certificates, land ownership records, marriage licenses, bankruptcy documents, court judgments, child support documents, divorce petitions and decrees, and tax liens. There is a 3-year window for compliance with these requirements in S. 848. Also, changes of paper records to electronic records are treated as a new record, thus subject to the above redaction requirements. H.R. 2036/S. 1014 would bar the display and sale of any individual's SSN, electronically or in writing. Thus far, no legislation on SSNs and privacy has been introduced, but bills on this issue are certain to be introduced.
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| Position: |
"The Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators note their grave concern over the courts' ability to meet the social security number redaction requirements in proposed privacy protection legislation and urge Congress to work with the Conferences to find effective solutions to this matter." (CCJ Resolution 29, adopted 8/1/02 in Rockport, ME)
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| References:
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To limit the misuse of Social Security Numbers (S. 848)
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To amend the Social Security Act to enhance privacy protections (H.R. 2036/S. 1014)
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To establish a commission on privacy issues (H.R. 583, S. 851)
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GAO Report "Social Security Numbers: Government Benefits from SSN Use But Could Provide Better Safeguards" May 2002
(www.gao.gov - GAO 02-352)
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Support
Materials:
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- Testimony before House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security by David Byers, COSCA President
- Social Security Numbers, NCSC Issue Brief, Vol. 3, No. 1, July 2002
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National Center for State Courts
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Phone (800) 532-0204 Fax (703) 841-0206
Questions or Comments - email govrel@ncsc.dni.us
Copyright
© 2002 The National Center for State
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