PA. to destroy millions of written court records.

College indiscretions, traffic citations and small lawsuits have become easier to put behind you in Pennsylvania.

The state has restricted access to millions of court records involving minor crimes, traffic offenses, landlord-tenant disputes and small suits. Those records have been removed from the state’s website and now require a formal request — and a fee — to access. 

Steve Schell, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, said the office changed the policy for the sake of consistency between paper and electronic records.

He said it made no sense for the court to keep electronic versions of records on the web after their paper copies had been destroyed.
 
But lawyers worry about the public’s ability to easily access the records of the state’s magisterial courts.

Edward Spreha, a Harrisburg-based defense attorney who frequently deals with traffic cases, said that the change will make it harder to find the criminal and civil court records of his clients, potential clients and witnesses.

“It really is a convenience issue for me,” he said. “It’s a shame that is not going to be there anymore.”
He said that the policy change would make criminal and civil searches that once took moments potentially last weeks.

The records, Schell said, have been moved to an archive and are not readily available to the public. He said that the public can submit requests for archived cases, but each request costs at least $80.

He said that is consistent with court policy; that electronic records must be maintained but do not need to be kept on the publicly accessible web portal. That same policy also mandates that only summary information about each case be kept, rather than the entire record of the case.

Schell said that cost and functionality were both concerns for the court system in making the change. He said that each record, both electronic and paper, had a cost associated with it to maintain. He also said that, as the electronic database grew, it became less efficient for each search.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/06/pennsylvania_restricts_access.html