How do I go about obtaining court records?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I have this friend, Bob. Last summer Bob was involved in a single-car accident, and his passenger was injured. He was charged with assault (not assault one, I know, but the charge is a felony). He did not go to jail, and I believe he did not have have to post bail or bond (I have no idea what the difference is, all I know is he didn’t have to cough up a bunch of cash to avoid being put in the county lockup). I’m sure he has other charges, because a), he had no driver’s licence when the accident occurred, and b), he was found with a bag of weed. But the felony assault charge is the ‘big’ one.

His trial is this month. He hired a private lawyer, and I believe he said it will be a jury trial. He also said he will accept any sentence, make any deal that avoids a felony conviction, even if that means jail time. So there may not be a trial, just a plea deal, but I don’t know. I have no idea how these things work.

It it very, very important to me that I know what happens during this trial. I would sit and watch, but he has made it very clear he doesn’t want any friends or family to be in the courtroom. He’s the type that will start yelling and making an ass of himself if someone doesn’t heed this request. He’s the kind of guy that will make this event a factor on his future decisions and actions. While I have no desire or intent to try to change his behavior, it is important that I have some knowledge of what transpired in that courtroom, so maybe I will have a better understanding of future behavior, and prepare myself accordingly.

So. Is there a way for just any schmo to get a copy of the court transcript? A list of what evidence was presented both by the prosecution and the defense? Any statements made by witnesses? Does the court keep records of this stuff? How can I get an idea of what happens in court? Can I get this information without his permission? What if there is no trial, is there sill a transcript of the discussions that lead to a plea deal?

It seems to me that a good deal of this information is public. Newspapers routinely print stories of trials, even if they didn’t have a reporter in the room. Also, my local newspaper has a complete list of the weeks sentencings listed every week. So at least the sentences, perhaps, are public? They must be if they’re printed in damn paper.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

2

Do you know the reference number of the case. If so go to the courthouse and ask for a copy (the procedure varies according to jurisdiction). As the matter is sub judice; they will probably ask you why you need it and you might not be(depending on jurisdiction) be able to get certain docs such as witness statements and other evidence, at least until the trial concludes.

3

Your local court may have certain basic information online, such as upcoming trial date and charges, and then afterward perhaps a record of the verdict or plea and (if guilty) the sentence.

If you actually go to the court clerk, there may be somewhat more information available for you to copy from the pretrial filings, but IANA criminal lawyer, and my knowledge of what gets filed with the court clerk (as opposed to simply exchanged between the prosecution and the defense) is sketchy. After the trial or plea, there ought to be a record in the clerk’s file of the verdict or plea and (if guilty) the sentence.

If there is a trial on a felony, I think there would typically be a court reporter recording the proceedings, but copies of any such transcript would not be freely available. You might be able to order one from the court reporter, but they can cost hundreds of dollars. If there is a plea, your friend would have to “allocute” in open court (admit to the relevant facts, or at least admit that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove the relevant facts), and there would be a transcript of that, but it likewise would not be freely available.

May I ask if you know anything more about the facts of the case? The prosecution must think he was driving recklessly to charge a single-car accident as assault. Do you have an opinion as to whether your friend is guilty of what he’s charged with?

Also, I would suggest that you already do have some information by which to predict his future behavior and prepare yourself, in his insistence that no one be present at the proceeding, and his willingness to blow up over it and hold a grudge.

4

A transcript? Dude. Not the best way to go about it.

All trials are attended by a court reporter unless the parties agree to go without one (rarely happens). So, they do make a record of the trial. However, that record is in court reporter’s shorthand on paper tape, and possibly on tape recordings. They won’t make an actual readable transcript from that unless someone requests one, such as if there’s an appeal. So, if you want one, you’ll be paying for the court reporter’s time to transcribe several hundred pages of notes. And court reporters’ time does not come cheap.

Frankly, it’d be cheaper to hire some out-of-work schlub to sit in the courtroom and take notes for you, if you can’t attend yourself. Or buddy up to a news reporter who’ll be sitting in.

5

If you’re afraid you may be legally implicated in what goes on in court, I wonder what options you might have for hiring a lawyer of your own either to attend or get info afterward on your behalf.

6

Any papers filed in the court are public documents (with some limited exceptions which don’t sound like they’d apply here, but you never know). The best thing to do is call the clerk’s office and ask them the procedure.

As also stated above, there will be a record made that is also publicly available, and it will be expensive to have the whole thing prepared, but probably not, like, crazy expensive, esp. if, as seems likely, the trial lasts only a couple days. The clerk can tell you the procedure for that too, most likely.

Furthermore, if it’s really important for you to know what’s going on – that is, more important than your friendship with Bob, you can just go. As a rule, the parties don’t have a right to kick people out that they don’t want watching. If you think this will cause Bob to act up in such a way that his defense will be harmed, then 1) maybe he’s the kind of guy that society would be better off it his liberty is restricted, but also 2) tell his lawyer ahead of time, and she can tell Bob to grow up.

Note the above all assumes that no one involved in the incident was a minor. Courts are much more solicitous of the privacy of minors, both as defendants and victims/witnesses. So if either was underage, then the court might not allow public access either to the trial or the documents. Again, the clerk can help you out here, although you might get some roundabout answers like “I can’t tell you if that person is on trial or not” because, if the stuff is under seal, then the clerk may not be allowed to discuss even the existence of such proceedings. On the other hand, if you’re easygoing about it, you might get more info than is strictly proper – I’ve had clerks tell me the actual content of orders even while officially stating that they can’t even confirm such orders exist.

–Cliffy. Esq.

P.S. As Koxinga notes, if you think you could be involved, esp. if you think you might be implicated, you should contact your own lawyer immediately and discuss with her what your options are. The stuff I wrote above is only meant to sketch how the curious can get information. If your legal rights might be at issue, you need much more comprehensive advice.

7

Here’s what I know. Last summer he was in a car wreck. He claimed that he had swerved to avoid hitting a deer and put the car over the edge and into a deep ditch, where it rolled. He had some scrapes and bruises, and his passenger suffered the same, as well as some broken ribs. The crash was bad enough that the FD had to use the jaws of life to cut them out of the car.

Now Bob is sorta an old friend of the family. He’s much closer to my parents than (figuratively and literally) than I am, so I sorta use him as a barometer to judge my parents day-to-day well being. I recently put a thread on here about my mom having a seizure; Bob has been keeping tabs on her just as much as everyone else. Problem is Bob has one of those ‘still a highschool bully’ attitudes, despite that he’s about my age, so he must be close to 30. Because of this I refuse to socialize with him, but I need to be able to remain on speaking terms with him because my parents like him and share a great deal with him.

So, since last summer he has sorta came clean with the real story of what happened. According to his new version of events, he was driving through the boonies in the middle of the night, being stupid and driving fast. He was on a rural road, but apparently didn’t notice a stop sign at a three-way intersection and ended up flying through the intersection at ~80 mph. Somehow he lost control immediately past the stop sign and rolled the car into the ditch a couple hundred yards on.FD shows up, both occupants go to the ER, and Bob is home by morning, with lots of fines and some criminal charges.

The passenger was an old girlfriend from highschool. His version is she had called him to help her diagnose some unspecified car problem. Is while test driving this car that the accident happened. Said woman was married, and hubby didn’t know that his wife was out joyriding with one of the town’s many losers. Frankly, I’m surprised Bob is not worried about becoming a hunting casualty courtesy of one pissed off husband who’s wife Bob was likely boinking. But no.

So basically, because of Bob’s relationship to my parents, and the likelihood that this trial will cause him to become even more of a bully if it goes bad for him, I need to know what happens in that courtroom. I’ve known exactly one felon in my life, and his entire world was defined by one drug conviction and six months in jail. I have known people who have been arrested and have lied to me about their criminal past (I worked in HR for a bit and had to do background checks. Why the hell do people lie about this stuff?). I’ve also known people who have been arrested for things like theft, and those arrests (and I assume convictions) have prevented them from completing certain life plans, like pursuing certain college degrees.

Bob’s life is pretty fucked up. He is in no way a contributing member of society. He has no job and lives with a two-dollar whore he calls a girlfriend. Their income comes from unemployment checks and selling weed. For some reason, he is ok with this lifestyle, but a felony conviction, he thinks, will ruin his life. I see no reason to point out that he has many thousands of dollars worth fines related to this car wreck, and since he has made no effort to address these, he’s going to get himself even deeper in shit.

My wife runs a daycare out of our home. At the very least I need to know what criminal convictions he (or his ‘girlfriend’) have. If I had my way I would call the cops next time he sets foot on my property, but I really don’t want the headache involved in pressing charges, if I did so my parents would simply write me out of their life (he is sorta like a son to them; they make excuses for his behavior and just accept that’s the way he is. They have a similar attitude about my brother. I suspect that most of this is because my dad is a pothead who believes that laws are merely inconvenient suggestions. The whole fucked up lot seem to peas on the same pod, bit I’m digressing).

8

Two things to add: First, as I think my description above shows, this isn’t my dog fight. I’m not implicated or have anything to do with the actual events. He was trying to score a piece of ass from and old girlfriend and.would have been fine if he hadn’t put her car in a ditch

Second, because his story has changed since the original accident, I really, really want to know the actual facts of this case. I’m not going to get them from him.

Also, I’ve driven by where the accident occurred. The spot where the car ended up in a ditch is literally a few feet from a power pole. The way he described the accident, the car landed in such a way that the passenger compartment would have been the part wrapped around the power pole. Meaning, obviously, that he came very close to possibly killing his passenger. If he had been driving a bit faster or drove a few yards further down the road before losing control, I suspect that woman would be dead today. She is extremely lucky she is alive. Bob, I suspect, is too shallow to realise this.

9

Not to be dismissive, but . . . what difference will it make, whatever you find out? If you’re concerned about your relationship with your parents and with Bob as an unfortunate side effect of that, maybe the best thing would be to let it go.

If it’s simply a matter of what criminal convictions he has, I’m sure that’d be freely available (or nearly freely). But for the sordid details – eh.

In any case, to find out what really is going on, it might be best to make friends with the cops.

10

Regardless of what kinds of convictions he or his girlfriend have, or what the facts of this particular case are, it’s clear that the guy is a piece of shit. So why does it matter what any of those facts are except to satisfy your own curiosity? If you don’t want him around the daycare, don’t let him around the daycare.

11

Yes, he’s a piece of shit. If he has an actual felony assault conviction my wife is required to keep him away from kids. Most of this is my own curiosity, but for obvious reasons it is vital to know if he is convicted. But considering his relationship with my parents and brother, I think it is fairly obvious why I want all the information.

12

Depending on your jurisdiction, you should be able to find what he was charged with, what dates are scheduled, and what he is eventually convicted of, online. If there is a plea agreement, there will likely be no transcript. There will certainly not be any transcript of plea negotiations between the lawyers. If there is a written plea agreement, however, a copy of that will go in the file and that should be publically accessible by anyone. Included with the plea, is usually a prosecutor’s, “proffer of facts,” that outlines briefly the facts of the case before the court. That will give you a less detailed version of what happened. Basically, Bob lost control of his car. Susy got hurt. A bag of MJ was found. This happened in Smith County.

If you really want to find out what happened that night, go to the local sheriff’s office and see if they will give you a copy of the police report. Be honest, say you are a family friend, and say that you are worried about any liability you may face if you let this guy come to your house.

13

Go to court in disguise!

It also might be possible (but check your local and state laws) to hire a friend (unknown to Bob) to record the hearing or trial. This might be a lot cheaper than ordering a transcript.

14

That’s probably going to be illegal. So bad idea.

15

The OP could send someone just to take notes. Sorry you’re in this bind, Lancia.

16

Daycare’s can’t have anyone that’s been convicted of a felony near them? Where did you hear that? I can’t possibly see that as even being remotely enforceable, even if such a law existed, which I highly doubt. Are you sure that the law in your jurisdiction doesn’t say that daycare’s can’t employ convicted felons?

So a convicted felon that lives in your town can’t send their children to a daycare? They can’t drop them off or pick them up?

Sounds like your parents don’t really care about Bob’s potential conviction or his story…so I have hard time seeing why you do, since you’re using them as the reason you need to know what happened.

Sounds more like your just a nosy acquaintence that wants information as ammo for some future argument with your parents or Bob, if that arises. And that’s okay…but why not just be upfront about it.

17

I am being nosy, as I alluded to in post #11. Let me ask you this: if your parents had a close friendship with a man who is facing some very serious criminal charges, and he has not been forthcoming with the details, wouldn’t you want to know the details of what happened to bring on these criminal charges? And as I mentioned above, a conviction will, I’m sure, cause his behavior to change, probably for the worst. I want to be prepared. He doesn’t work, but that’s mostly by choice. Does his unemployment stop if he’s convicted of a felony? What about a year from now when he has no money and starts stealing some of my parents stuff to make a buck? A felony conviction doesn’t guarantee this behavior one way or the other, but it certainly can have an effect. I want to be prepared. If that makes me nosy I will happily accept the label.

As far as a felon visiting a daycare, I present ORS 414-205-0040

I am being nosy, as I alluded to in post #11. Let me ask you this: if your parents had a close friendship with a man who is facing some very serious criminal charges, and he has not been forthcoming with the details, wouldn’t you want to know the details of what happened to bring on these criminal charges? And as I mentioned above, a conviction will, I’m sure, cause his behavior to change, probably for the worst. I want to be prepared. He doesn’t work, but that’s mostly by choice. Does his unemployment stop if he’s convicted of a felony? What about a year from now when he has no money and starts stealing some of my parents stuff to make a buck? A felony conviction doesn’t guarantee this behavior one way or the other, but it certainly can have an effect. I want to be prepared. If that makes me nosy I will happily accept the label.

As far as a felon visiting a daycare, I can’t figure out how to post a link on my Android, but the law is OAR 414-205-0040.

18

Dammit, screwed up the edit. Applicable law regarding felons on the premises of registered home daycares is OAR 414-205-0040.

19

??? - where does it say that no one visiting the home can be a felon. It discusses “residents” and “substitute providers” in the home. Unless you intend to ask Bob to move in or ask him to take over daycare duties, I don’t think you have a problem.

20

Can you simply call the prosecutor after the trial is over, explain why you care about this, and ask him or her what happened in the trial?