Treisman on serving the community
What we do in the court process and the court’s available services should be made clearer and more familiar to our public. In many ways our courts will better serve our community when our community is more familiar with the role of the courts. This is not necessarily because greater numbers will have reason to appear in a courtroom, but because that knowledge will help individuals understand the reported workings of the court and the reasons for various actions. That understanding will build trust in the institution. That understanding will also assist anyone seeking documents or services from the court.
Even with a better understanding of the courts, the community would be best served by fuller access to court records and documents. Of course, many of the impediments to full access are rooted in privacy considerations. Juvenile records, probation reports and mental health related evaluations are generally foreclosed to public access in the absence of a showing of need. These are policy decisions that arise out of our collective desire to see people rehabilitate and reenter society without stigma. Of course, this privacy has been balanced against the anonymity that it helps a would-be threat to our community to maintain. As a result, this balance changes over time as greater information is deemed necessary to protect the community.
What ever information is permitted, it should be easily obtained. Changing information technology and storage systems will help in this effort. More information will become available online and the cost of storage and retrieval will be greatly reduced. Electronic storage rather than tangible archival storage will greatly boost availability of information and records. The limitations will be the time and cost of conversion to such a system and the policy and procedure decisions for permitting or baring access.
However, as this wealth of stored information becomes more quickly and readily available, so too will be the expectation that cases can be just as quickly brought to a close. Our legal system is predicated upon due process rights. Because due process is dependent upon knowing and informed exercise of rights and options, attorneys and judges are obligated to inform the parties at each stage of the proceedings. As a result, there is no foreseeable substitute for man hours and diligent effort to prepare cases for disposition or trial. This does not mean that cases should not move forward quickly and efficiently, but civil and criminal cases do take time. Unnecessary and frivolous delays should be eliminated. But, the record of each action must be made so that later review can determine that rights were observed and informed decisions were made. That is the cornerstone of our system of justice.