HAZLETON — Superior Court President Judge Correale Stevens today announced the court is preparing a “media and public information” page for its Web site to provide easy access to filed court documents from “cases of important public interest.”
“The Superior Court understands the importance of easy access to court filings in cases of public interest,” Stevens said. “The Web page that the Centre County court created for the Commonwealth v. Sandusky case was widely used and has served as an example for what we hope to accomplish on our Web site.”
Stevens said that in the past only technical filing information, called “court dockets” have been placed on the Superior Court Web site. However, in cases of special public interest, entire court filings, called “motions,” will now be posted on the website as soon as practically possible. This will make detailed information available online, without the necessity of reporters and the public going to the court offices in Harrisburg, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh to obtain the documents.
“We will post as much information as we can,” Stevens said. “Of course, for various legal reasons, any documents that are ordered sealed will not be posted on the Web site until the issue of sealing is resolved. For example, a motion involving an ongoing drug investigation would likely be sealed and not immediately available.”
“The Superior Court is excited about this new way to improve access to court filings,” Judge Stevens said.
Stevens emphasized that the new page has been created, but no documents have yet been posted. The page can be found by going to www.superior.court.state.pa.us and clicking on the “Media and Public Information” icon on the left hand side of the page. Once filings are posted, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts will have a link to the Superior Court media and public information page on its Web site, under the Superior Court link, and a link also will be available on the Centre County Web site.
