Court records going on-line

Want to check out the background of a prospective employee? You can run a statewide check for speeding tickets, traffic violations, child support debts and criminal convictions on-line, starting tomorrow. That’s just part of the free court information available on the Iowa Judicial Branch’s website. Rebecca Coulton, executive assistant to the Iowa Supreme Court’s Chief Justice, says court cases will be on the web, too.Coulton expects a wide variety of people to visit the site, including attorneys, insurance companies and abstractors who’re doing title opinions.Coulton says in a couple of months, the next phase will give those who pay a subscription fee more detailed information.You used to have to go to each of Iowa’s 99 courthouses in person and ask court workers to search the court records. This new statewide Internet search of court records was made possible when the 99 courthouses got linked by computer.Coulton says the state will spend about 300-thousand dollars a year in communications costs to run the website.