Should court records be online?

A committee advising the Florida Supreme Court recommended yesterday that official court documents should go online in the interest of open government but there need to be certain safeguards against the release of personal information, CNET News.com reports. Today, virtually no Florida court documents are released electronically because of a 2003 moratorium, which came about because sensitive documents were previously released online. According to CNET:

[The committee] said that courts must first create new rules clarifying, among other things, what precisely needs to be redacted as confidential information and establishing limits on what can be released. Mental health, medical, drug treatment and family law records, for example, would not be authorized for release except in special circumstances.

In addition, the committee urged the Florida Legislature to look at regulating credit reporting agencies and "data brokers" that aggregate and sell personal information. The committee also  urged Congress to take action but in a way that allows the states to go beyond a federal baseline.