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Defender General tells House Judiciary Committee public court records should be accessible online
Summary
At a Feb. 4 House Judiciary hearing, the Defender General (Matt) testified for H572, saying the default should be online access to court records, including criminal files and orders, while carving out narrow privacy exceptions; he urged clear statutory direction so courts can adopt rules.
The Defender General, identified in the transcript as Matt, urged the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 4 to make public court records broadly accessible online under H572, arguing that public access to primary-source materials reduces misinformation.
Matt said he was appointed Defender General in 2001 and described how his views on public access have evolved: "First, I thought that, you know, if it was a pub public record, it should be available to everybody," he said, then worried about misuse, and later concluded "because of the Internet…
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