New Jersey Criminal Defense Lawyers Identify Information That Will Now Be Accessible
State authorities recently announced that criminal conviction records will now be available for public access through a searchable database on the New Jersey Courts website.
The Criminal Conviction Public Access system will make information accessible to everyone and will include all cases that have been filed after 1994. Cases are searchable based on name or docket number, and users can also locate the charges on which the conviction was based. In addition, users can search based on other filtering criteria like the hometowns of the defendants as well as the birth years or State Bureau of Investigation numbers.
Some types of convictions will not be available on the system. For instance, criminal convictions that have been expunged from the person's records and cases that are not completely resolved will not be available.
According to the New Jersey Courts, this new system is part of an effort to make court information more accessible to the public. A similar system can also be used to search for criminal cases and evaluate attorneys. For instance, the New Jersey Courts website can help you determine the eligibility of an attorney to practice in the state or locate liens that have been filed against individuals. Such information was previously available only at county courthouses.
Making such information available to the public makes it easier for people to determine if an individual has a criminal conviction on his or her record. Anybody who has access to the Internet will be able to access a person’s criminal records through this database.
New Jersey criminal defense attorneys argue that such a database unduly penalizes individuals convicted of past crimes. Criminal offenders have already been subjected to penalties and paid their dues, and making their records available to the public will only make their life harder.
The New Jersey criminal defense attorneys at Helmer Paul Conley and Kasselman represent persons charged with DUI, assault, fraud, murder, and other crimes across New Jersey.
