Last week, we mentioned that the King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office now has a way for you to request court records online. If you have not yet had a chance to look at this new application, we have put together a quick overview of the system and how it looks. You can check it out by following this link and clicking on the Superior Court Online Records Requests guide.
The King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office recently introduced a new online application to request copies of court documents. The system requires that you set up an account before you can begin requesting superior court filings and you can pay for your request via credit card or electronic check.
In addition to being able to request court records online, the system also allows you to request certified copies, exemplified copies and expedited service. Users can request documents via case number from 1979 forward and it includes those cases that cannot be accessed using the Clerk’s Office ECR system.
For more information, you can contact the Clerk’s Office at 206-296-9300, or go to their website.
On January 21, 2010, a divided United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn a century of legal precedent in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205.
Written by Justice Kennedy, the Court ruled that certain aspects of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) were unconstitutional. At issue was whether or not the limiting of independent corporate spending on political speech during campaigns, as outlined in the provisions of the BCRA, was a violation of the First Amendment. Up until now, corporations were allowed to spend money on campaigns via other avenues, such as Political Action Committees (PACs), but not from their own general treasury. Reversing prior rulings, the court ruled that these limitations to speech were in fact a violation of the First Amendment. Joining Justice Kennedy in the majority opinion were Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts. A ninety-page dissent was issued by Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justice Sotomayor, Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg.
The Court’s ruling may not have that much effect here in Washington State, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission. Washington law does not prohibit contributions from corporations or unions from their general treasury as long as those expenditures are reported correctly. However, the Commission is still reviewing the portion of the decision that affects ads that run in the closing days of elections. For more information on how this ruling affects other states, the First Amendment Center has a breakdown on their website.
For full text of the decision, along with concurrence and dissents, you can go to the Supreme Court website and download a copy of the slip opinion. For individual links to the majority opinion, as well as the individual concurrences and dissents, you can check out the Cornell Website. Additional analysis has been provided by the folks over at SCOTUS blog.
In this episode of KCLL’s Sidebar, Rick talks about the process of e-filing in King County Superior Court and the most frequent questions the library receives regarding this new system. Craig, in his “Reel Verdict” segment, reviews a documentary he recently watched called “The Trials of Law School”. This movie follows the lives of law students as they negotiate the theories and practice of law in a school setting.
King County Elections has created a way for you to track your mail-in ballot and confirm that your vote counted. By going to their website and clicking on the Mail Ballot Tracking link, you can enter your name and date of birth and see where your ballot is in the counting process.
Tomorrow is election day, and if you live in King County, you should have already received your mail-in ballot. Your ballot needs to be postmarked by November 3rd in order to be counted. King County has also provided mail ballot drop-off boxes throughout the county as an alternative to mailing your ballot. For information on the upcoming election, or to find out more about mail-in voting, the King County Elections office has put together a number of resources on their website.
The November schedule has been posted for classes that we will be teaching at the Seattle branch of KCLL. Classes include Civil Procedure in 90 Minutes, Skip Tracing and a new class called Suing Mad, which teaches those in attendance about commencing an action in Superior Court. You can view a link to our classes here. To sign up for one of our free classes, all you need to do is call the library at 206-296-0940.