Judici Policies Regarding Public Access to Court Data

KB article ID:JSA0808P

The following policies specifically govern electronic access to the court's data by the public, generally described in the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts' Electronic Access Policy for Circuit Court Records of the Illinois Courts, effective April 1, 2004 (hereinafter "Electronic Access Policy).

General Policies

    1. Limits on data elements available- data elements restricted from public access under the Electronic Access Policy shall not be made available.

    2. Limits on the extent of data delivered electronically- unless otherwise noted herein, no query of the court's data shall return all of the data on the cases matching the query criteria. Rather, the data returned shall be a limited index (hereinafter the "Electronic Index") comprised of those data elements forming the relevant case index under the Manual on Recordkeeping from the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, plus case open/close dates, litigant date of birth and case subtype (if any).

    3. Means of use- use of court data shall be limited to that indicated to be by a person using a user interface (hereinafter a "Human User"), unless access by a computer interface ("Automated Access") is specifically provided for herein.

  1. Searches on partial names by Human Users and Automated Access are permitted. This helps when the precise name for used on the case is not known (e.g. Rob vs. Robert). The data returned in response to such a search shall be limited to the limited Electronic Index, so that the substantive details on the case must still be acquired by a subsequent request.

Services Available

    1. Person-centric queries- queries by Human Users or Automated Access which request data for a particular individual based on a case number or on one or more specified values for a data element associated with a person, as long as the data element isn't excluded from public view under Section 4.30 of the Electronic Access Policy, are permissible. Services based on such queries include, but are not necessarily limited to:

        • a search of cases by litigant name. This includes the ability to search across all participating courts, provided under the Multi-court Subscription Service

        • a judge's docket (schedule)

        • an attorney's case list

      • will index search

    1. Case-centric queries- queries by Human Users or Automated Access which provide data for a particular case number are permissible. Services based on such queries include, but are not necessarily limited to:

      • getting the case details for one of the cases indicated in the Electronic Index resulting from a person-centric search.

      • push notification of new or changed data on a case

    1. Compiled case reports- Human Users may use a specific set of reports which compile data from multiple cases. While such reports may contain data beyond that in the Electronic Index, they should not contain more data elements than are necessary to perform specific requests often made of the court. The reports permitted on this basis are those showing:

      • Docket for a specified time period

      • Cases filed in a specified time period

      • Civil judgments issued in a specified time period

      • Criminal judgments issued in a specified time period

    1. Web services allow Automated Access. These are narrowly-scoped (usually limited to specific individuals) and are thus do not deliver data in bulk.

Examples of Judici.com services available in accordance with these policies

See Judici.com Services [Cnv link jsa0808]