Vermont: Online Access to State Court Documents
Summary
TLDRThis video discusses how to access Vermont state court records online. It guides viewers through the Vermont Judiciary website's public portal, explaining how to search civil cases from home. Tips are provided for looking up cases by case number conventions and searching names using the 'sounds like' feature. The process for formally requesting records via email is outlined. Limitations around accessing criminal and family court records remotely are noted, but the ability to search those at courthouse public access terminals is highlighted.
Takeaways
- 😃 This video lesson teaches how to access state court records in Vermont online
- 📝 The Vermont Judiciary website has a public portal to search for civil court cases
- 🚫 Criminal, probate, and family court records can't be accessed from home
- 🖥️ The public portal allows searching cases by year and filing order convention
- 📃 Dockets show case events like filings and hearings that happened and are upcoming
- ✉️ Request specific records by emailing the court clerks with a filled out form
- 🔎 Use the 'sounds like' search to find alternate spellings of names
- 📸 Allowed to take phone photos of records when at public access terminals
- 🗄️ Same Odyssey system for records search exists at courthouses too
- ☎️ Instructor offers to answer further questions about Vermont court records access
Q & A
What is the purpose of the webinar series hosted by the New England First Amendment Coalition?
-The webinar series aims to educate the public on how courts work, the types of access individuals are entitled to under the First Amendment, state law, and various court rules. It also covers state public record and open meeting laws, along with tutorials on using the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Who is the instructor for the session focused on online access to state court records in Vermont?
-The instructor for the session on accessing state court records in Vermont is Emily Sweeney, a member of the NEAC executive committee and a reporter for the Boston Globe.
Why is it difficult to access state court records online in Vermont?
-Accessing state court records online in Vermont is challenging due to the way the state's system and statutes are set up, which do not allow for immediate access to records from home.
What system does Vermont use for filing court records, and how can the public access it?
-Vermont uses the Odyssey filing system for court records. The public can access it through the Vermont Judiciary's website and navigate to the public portal without needing to create an account for basic searches.
What limitations exist for searching court records from home in Vermont?
-From home, individuals can only search civil court cases in Vermont. Criminal cases, probate, family court, and others are not accessible remotely and require visiting a courthouse to use Public Access Terminals.
How can someone request specific court records if they cannot access them online?
-To request specific court records, individuals can fill out a 'Request Access to a Court Record' form available on the Vermont Judiciary's website, specifying the case number and document they need. The form can then be emailed to the court for processing.
What is the 'Smart Search' feature and how is it used?
-The 'Smart Search' feature allows users to search for court records by case number, party name, or other details. For civil cases, users can search using the year and case number format to find specific filings and view docket sheets for case events.
What is the filing convention for civil cases in Vermont?
-The filing convention for civil cases in Vermont includes the last two digits of the year, followed by 'CV' for civil cases, a dash, and then a five-digit sequence representing the order in which cases were filed.
Can the public take pictures of court records at the courthouse?
-Yes, under Vermont statute, individuals are allowed to take pictures of the computer screen displaying court records at the courthouse, which can be a convenient way to obtain documents without needing a paper copy.
What advice is given for using advanced search options when looking for court cases?
-The advice includes using the 'sounds like' feature in advanced filtering options to broaden search results. This is particularly useful if you're unsure of the exact spelling of a name or looking for variations of a name that sound similar.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Accessing New England State Court Records
Justin Silverman introduces the third lesson in a series focusing on understanding the courts and access rights under the First Amendment, state law, and court rules, emphasizing the cumulative nature of the series available through the New England First Amendment Coalition (NEFAC). The lesson, supported by entities like the Rhode Island Foundation and SBJ New England, features NEFAC executive committee member and Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney, who along with Liam Elder Connors from Vermont Public, will guide viewers through accessing online state court records in Vermont. They address the complexity of accessing these records online due to Vermont's system and statutes but promise to offer tips and workarounds for electronic access, especially for journalists.
🔍 Detailed Guide on Searching Vermont State Court Records Online
The second segment dives into a step-by-step tutorial led by Liam Elder Connors on navigating Vermont's judiciary website to access court records. Despite the challenging nature of online access in Vermont, Connors demonstrates how to use the Vermont Judiciary's Public Portal to reach Odyssey, the filing system. He explains the filing conventions for civil and criminal cases, showing viewers how to search for cases by year and case type. Additionally, Connors offers tips on understanding the docket sheet, which reveals case details such as events and involved parties, albeit without direct access to documents. For those needing specific documents, he outlines the process of requesting records via a PDF form on the judiciary's website, emphasizing the importance of detailed requests to facilitate the clerks' search and the method for emailing these requests to court-specific addresses.
📅 Tips for Efficient Document Request and Search Strategies
The final segment elaborates on the practical aspects of requesting court records and searching for cases involving specific individuals. Connors discusses the expected turnaround time for record requests, which varies by court workload but typically ranges from a few hours to a day. He highlights the utility of the 'sounds like' search feature for broadening name searches, a useful tool for journalists investigating cases with potentially misspelled names. Lastly, Connors touches on accessing criminal dockets and the legality of photographing public access terminal screens in courthouses for record keeping. The tutorial concludes with an appreciation for the audience's participation and an open invitation for further questions, underscoring the webinar's aim to demystify the process of accessing Vermont court records online.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡court records
💡public portal
💡Odyssey
💡docket sheet
💡public access terminal
💡records request
💡search tips
💡First Amendment
💡Limitations
💡Workarounds
Highlights
Justin Silverman of the New England First Amendment Coalition introduces the lesson on New England state courts.
The lesson is part of a series on court workings, access rights under the First Amendment, state law, and court rules.
Previous lessons and resources on public record and open meeting laws, and the federal Freedom of Information Act are available online.
Special thanks given to supporters like the Rhode Island Foundation, SBJ New England, and the New England Society of News Editors.
Emily Sweeney from the Boston Globe is introduced as the instructor for the webinar.
The session focuses on accessing online state court records in Vermont.
Liam Elder Connors of Vermont Public discusses the challenges of accessing Vermont state court records online.
Introduction to the Vermont judiciary's website and the Odyssey filing system.
Explanation on how to use the Vermont Judiciary public portal to access court records.
Details on the limitations of searching for criminal, probate, and family court cases from home.
Instructions on filling out and submitting a request form for access to court records.
Discussion on the use of public access terminals at courthouses for comprehensive case searches.
Tips on using the Odyssey system for efficient search of court records.
How to request electronic delivery of court records by email.
Liam Elder Connors offers additional search tips and explains the 'sounds like' feature for broader searches.
Transcripts
I'm Justin Silverman of the New England
First Amendment Coalition thank you for
joining us for this lesson on New
England state courts this lesson is the
third in our series of classes
discussing how the courts work and what
types of access you're entitled to under
the First Amendment state law and
various court rules each lesson is
cumulative so if you haven't already
please view the previous two lessons you
can find them on our YouTube channel 5
freedoms are in our foi guide at nea.org
you'll also find there lessons on state
public record and open meeting laws as
well as tutorials on how to use the
federal Freedom of Information Act
collectively these lessons provide a
curriculum you won't find anywhere else
a special thanks to those who are
supporting these classes and keeping
them free and open to the public the
road Island Foundation SBJ New England
and the New England society of news
editors
now to introduce you to today's
instructor neac executive committee
member and Boston Globe reporter Emily
Sweeney hey everybody I'm Emily Sweeney
from the Boston Globe and I want to
thank you all for joining us for this
webinar which is brought to you by the
New England First Amendment Coalition
this session is going to focus on online
access to state court records in Vermont
and with us is Liam Elder Connors from
Vermont Public Liam thank you so much
for being here
yeah thanks for having me Emily um yeah
so we're going to get right into
accessing state court records in Vermont
I'm going to show you step by step uh
how you can do that in Vermont um I'll
say right off the bat um it's a bit
difficult there's not actually a great
way to say sit at home and access state
court records online uh the way Vermont
system is set up and the statute is
written um you can't really get records
immediately but there are some things
that I do uh as a reporter who covers a
lot of court cases and whatnot to be
able to get some electronic access to
them so we're just gonna hop in now I'm
G to share the screen so the first thing
to do is to go to the Vermont
judiciary's website which is Vermont
spelled out
judiciary.com public portal which it's
in this second column here when you hit
the menu um and the public portal is
where we're going to be able to get to
Odyssey which is the filing system that
Vermont switched to a couple of years
ago uh and as you see on this page here
there's a lot of different things kind
of talking about it um there's this
Vermont Judiciary public portal user
guide which does have some useful
information I'm not going to go on that
today I'm going to kind of try to keep
this as simple and straightforward as
possible uh for folks so if you want to
get to the system where you can actually
kind of start looking up court records
you're going to scroll right down here
to this access the public portal button
and just click on that public portal say
yep continue to leave and it's going to
take you here to the public portal page
um you do not need to create an account
to search in here there you could create
an account um that's more useful if
let's say you're an attorney or somebody
who is not a journalist or general
member of the public because you could
get elevated access which actually would
let you download court cases and court
records as just a normal kind of member
of the public or a journalist I don't
have that elevated access so we're just
going to do the normal kind of searching
that you can do and you're going to go
down to Smart search um and click on
that and when you get to that you'll
you'll be here and I should also start
off by saying that from home I can only
search things that are in the Civil
courts in Vermont so any criminal case
probate Family Court all of those things
I can't search from home you can go to a
courthouse and all cour houses do have
computers they're called Public Access
Terminals and from that terminal you can
search all court cases around the state
including criminal and so what I'm going
to try do now is show some tips for
using this Odyssey feature from home
which you can also then use if you go to
the public portal uh at a courthouse and
use the access system um things like
knowing the the filing conventions
essentially for court cases can help you
look up things
so for looking up a civil case let's say
you don't have a specific thing that
you're looking for but you maybe want to
see what's been filed recently um a
little bit of a manual process but the
filing convention in Vermont for cases
are uh the year the last two digits of
the year so in this let's say we're
looking for something in 2021 it would
be
21 Das CV which is for any civil case
it's CV for civil it'd be uh CR if it's
in criminal court and then another Dash
and then five digits and the five digits
is the the order in which the cases are
filed so let's go to the let's say the
10th case filed in 2021 in civil court
so it would be uh let's see one two
three four five so three zeros and a 10
and when you hit
submit it should give you great so it
will pull up that case and what we can
do is we can click on the case and we
will actually be able to look at the
docket sheet for it which can tell you
sort of what records you might want to
request so right now you know you can
see that it's a let's see what is this
it's in Rutland uh it was filed on
January 4th
2021 it's a credit card collection case
um all this information is really useful
um and then you can see a little bit
more costs of actions the case events I
find very useful because it it's a way
to kind of check up on civil cases that
I'm following or that might be
interested in sort of see what recent
things have happened and you can see all
the different filings as you can see I
can't click on any of them if I was at a
courthouse there'd be a little uh PDF
icon that I could click on and then
actually look at those records um but
right now I can just sort of see what's
been filed you can also see what
hearings are coming up um and what
happened in those you can see this there
was a bench trial that was supposed to
happen that got cancelled um and so
there's a lot of information here it you
can't get the records just by clicking
on them but let's say I wanted to get
the complaint in this case and I didn't
want to drive to a courthouse so now I
know what the case number is I also know
what the the parties in the case I know
when it was filed I know where it was
filed I can go back to the judiciary's
website which is vermontjudiciary.org
I'm going to click on menu again and go
to
media and
when we get to Media we're going to
scroll down to records
requests requests for access to the
court
and uh let's see we're going to scroll
down all the way to the bottom to this
form it's a PDF it's request access to a
court record going to open that up in a
new
tab and as you can see it loads um it's
just it's a fillable PDF form that we're
going to fill out out so I don't
remember where all this was but let's
say the case was in
Bennington it's a civil case it's 21-
cv- 2222 whatever it is and then just
fill out your info about yourself you
know my name phone number uh the kind of
case it is you don't necessarily need to
put the case type in here um it can help
but if you have the case number and the
name of the case that's going to help
out the clerk they're going to be able
to find it no problem so I would usually
just fill out that information the kind
of information you're looking for maybe
I want the whole file if I know that I
just want a spec a specific document
I'll say I just want the
complaint then you would click
electronic
certification which means they'll send
it to you by email requested delivery
method email fill out the date signature
I usually just do a you know two slashes
put my name there and then uh then save
this PDF title it you know records
request and the docket number for it and
so once you have that you're going to
email the court there's a lot of steps
here I know it's kind of cumbersome but
this is frankly the the best way I have
you know from home of getting access to
court records um so once I filled out
that form I'm going to go back to the
Vermont judiciaries page and scroll back
up up to email addresses for all the
courts and you click on
that and this will tell you all the
email addresses for all the courts um so
this one is in Bennington copy and paste
that and email them the subject line is
actually valuable and and in this is
that you want to make sure it goes to
the right division of the whatever Court
you're requesting to so in this case
it's civil so in your subject line you'd
put the docket sheet uh you know let's
say it was in Bennington Bennington
Civil Division I usually also put in
like records requests in all capitals
either at the front or at the back end
of this just to make sure it gets
flagged and then the time that it takes
for them to get back to you can can
change a little bit um different courts
and depending on how busy it is it might
take a little longer or shorter but I
usually get things within a couple of
hours to a day at most um so it's a
pretty quick turnaround time and can be
useful if let's say you're not on an
intense deadline um and that you maybe
just sort of need to uh you know get
something if you're fishing around and
are interested in a case it's a good way
to sort of gather uh documents there
so that's generally a way of of doing it
it's a little cumbersome but um all of
these sort of search skills are
applicable if you go into the public
portal um I want to go back to the uh to
our web page sorry about that the uh
uh where is it I'll go back to the
public portal and just sort of talk a
little bit about Goods sort of search
tips if you're looking for names of a
person um because that can also be a
little
tricky um so we're going to go back to
the public portal going to
continue smart
search
um and generally you know it's last name
first name middle name suffix um and you
know that can be good so let's say let's
see if there's anything for me right in
civil nothing I don't have any civil
court cases thankfully um but let's say
you're pretty sure that the name of a
person involved in a case that you're
looking for his pretty sure his name is
Liam maybe not totally sure uh a feature
that I really like to use is I go to
advaned filtering options
I generally leave you know all locations
I don't really I want it to be as broad
as possible and I'll scroll down to
sounds like and this will sort of give
me names that are close to what I'm
searching and this can be kind of a good
way to broaden your searches if you're
pretty sure that you know a person who's
involved in a case but that they're not
coming up for whatever reason so once
you hit that and hit
submit we're going to it gets Connor's
Leon uh Connor's Lynn so as you can see
sort of it it's sounds like Liam Connor
it's not exactly um and I've used that
before in reporting about um rental
housing and trying to find cases that
were filed by uh tenants against the
landlord and small claims court and I
was using the sounds likee feature to
sort of broadly look to make sure I
wasn't missing any of this landlord's
various like llc's or or his different
you know if his name was one thing or or
different thing depending on how the
tenant filed it so that that's kind of a
a good like tool that I like to use when
I'm uh searching
cases um so those are those are kind of
the big things that you can do if you're
trying to get access to Vermont court
records from home um again this same
system this aicy system here it's going
to look just like this if you go to a
courthouse uh and use the public access
terminal there it's it's going to have
all of the same stuff except you'll be
able to search the criminal docket as
well which um is useful and then you can
click on the filings you can either
print them out and you know pay a fee to
get a copy of them but you can also what
I do sometimes is I'll take a picture of
the computer screen with my phone that
is allowed under Vermont statute that is
not going to be a problem and it can be
a good way if you're just sort of you
know not sure if you need a paper copy
but still want to have a copy there as
well um so those are the big those are
the big things on accessing Vermont
court records online I wish sometimes it
was a little a little simpler but um
yeah that is that's what we got Liam
thank you so much for for for you know
guiding us through how to get uh court
records in Vermont I appreciate it happy
to do it and people feel free to follow
up if they have any more questions even
after the fact happy to chat about this
anytime all right excellent all right
well hey thanks
everybody
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