ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030170
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The marriage license section with its cartoon bride and groom and tinny rendition of a wedding march are the first indications that the Wise County Circuit Court Internet page is unusual.
Other court pages on the World Wide Web tend to be fairly straightforward, mainly listing phone numbers and addresses. The World Wide Web is the graphical portion of the Internet which offers access to text, photos, databases and sound.
But court clerk Jack Kennedy tried to do something different with the Wise County page. First, he made it lively and graphic. Then, he tried to offer free public records to computer users.
``I became fascinated with knowing that technology could be taken one step further,'' Kennedy said. ``I kept thinking, why are we waiting? The technology is here now.''
That's when he ran afoul of the state's attorney general, who ruled in June that Kennedy did not have the statutory authority to offer the information on line.
Now, Kennedy is hoping to change the remote-access law in the General Assembly. Two state agencies studying how to offer public information via computer will also report back to the General Assembly in January.
The State Code does let clerks offer ``remote access'' to court records. But another part of the code says you can't do it for free. It says a clerk who offers ``remote access'' must charge a user fee, to be levied ``for each inquiry or upon actual connect time.''
``Frankly, I was somewhat taken aback,'' Kennedy said. ``I'm not in favor of charging a fee.''
Others disagree - for example, Curtis Fruit, the Virginia Beach court clerk.
``If I ever can provide remote access,'' Fruit said, ``if I don't charge a fee, there's no way I can continue to do it. To run a system big enough to make this thing work, you have hardware and software costs, plus maintenance costs. If there is no revenue stream to cover that, there's no way to offer it.''
Attorney General Jim Gilmore, in an interview with Kennedy's hometown paper, the Coalfield Progress, said he favors wider computer access to court records, but with a fee.
``Any such fee should depend on the statewide costs, which should not be a burden on taxpayers,'' Gilmore said.
Kennedy, 40, a former Democratic state delegate and state senator, is confident he will win, in the long run.
``It's going to happen. It's a matter of when,'' Kennedy said. ``We want to be there first.''
Wise County Circuit Court can be reached on the Internet at http://www.compunet.net/courtbar
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB