Tennessee lags with online court records

SHEILA BURKE

Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE — Tennessee lags behind several other states when it comes to posting court case information online, with the vast majority of counties offering a virtual blackout of information.

Nobody tracks how many court systems throughout state allow the public to go online and look up case information, but only three out of 95 counties — Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton — appear to offer some form of the service to the public.

Open records' advocates say there's no excuse for so many Tennessee counties to not provide the information online. They want the county court clerks to start making plans to get that information online in the future, when budgets aren't so tight.