Hamilton County residents no longer have to go to certain courts to learn what happens inside them.
Since July 17, they can view digitized information related to thousands of Circuit and General Sessions Court cases for free at TennesseeCaseFinder.com.
“It’s really going to be a benefit, not just to the legal profession and our judges,” said Circuit Court Clerk Larry Henry, “but also the general public, investigative agencies, title companies and collections services, who can go right to it.”
Henry said his staff began trudging through thousands of court files, redactions and other confidential information in December 2014. For a conservative estimate of their work, multiply 80,000 cases a year by 40 or so years, Henry said. All told, his clerks processed about 3.2 million different cases without going to county commissioners for funding.
Before this service, most citizens would either travel to the courthouse or call the clerks to get a copy of something. Between both courts, which tend to handle property disputes, wrongful-death litigation, orders of protection and other civil complaints, clerks were receiving about 1,5000 calls a week, Henry said, adding that he reviewed the phone records.