A boon for transparency in Maine’s court system

Maine’s judiciary has seen the sunlight: Court records will one day be available online.

The decision announced by Chief Justice Leigh Saufley earlier this month stands to open blinds on parts of the state’s judiciary that are difficult to access, currently requiring journalists, activists and members of the public to travel to courthouses in each county to read paper case files.

In those files, residents, businesspeople and government officials ask the government for something big: to deliver them justice under the law. They raise a hand to point out perceived wrongdoing. They put their names to sworn statements about what happened, to whom. Read more…