|
Dangers of on-line internet searching
by stephen willard
| 2012/02/08 |
A recent situation has occured in the Fairfield County (Ohio) Clerk of Courts office that has emphasized the dangers of on-line searching. This office has an internet web-site where records can be searched by name, case number, etc. that goes back to 1986. They also have in-house public access computers that provide the same search function. They installed a new program for their in-house public access computers which caused a disrupton in record retrieval. Because of this, a number of examiners turned to their on-line site. After having difficulties in retrieving records on-line, we examiners began to ask questions of the clerk of courts staff. We were informed that the on-line site had not had its records updated since Jan. 03, 2012. This was brought to our attention on 02/02/2012 and only after we inquired. No posting on the Clerk of Courts home page gave any indication of any record retrieval problems. I personally have met with the staff & the elected official to discuss this problem and possible resolutions. I was met with cooperation, but mostly, they were unaware of how to fix the problems as they were also unaware of there being a problem. The elected official wanted to blame the County's IT department as opposed to take responsiblity for her office's website and in-office public access computer issues. So the bottom line is when searching on-line, if the site you have accessed is not the same record retrieval program you access at the county courthouse you are really searching at great risk to miss important documents with no or little recourse.
stephen willard's Blog ::
366 words
|
2265 views
|
|
|