Citrus County Public Records

Court records are part of the collection known as Citrus County Public Records not only because it is required by law, but also because of other practical purposes. Court records contain not only the specifics of a particular case but also other important matters relevant to the decision and disposition of the case including but not limited to the transcript of the hearing and the evidences presented by both sides. The presence of these had made court documents very important for the appellate process where a higher tribunal would review the case so as to decide if the proper decision had been made and for law students who are studying the law. Lawyers themselves typically search for these records because of the doctrine of precedence in an attempt to find past cases that bear some resemblance to the case that they are handling now.

As part of the public records, court records are always available to the public. Currently, there is no Florida statute that restricts the viewing of these documents, indeed, there is a statute in reverse, meaning, there is a law that prohibits the official custodian of such documents from restricting the same. Any person is entitled to view the records at whatever circumstances and for whatever reason. Under the law, the official custodian of court records would be the clerk of court, and as such, a person who desires to view court records would be well advised to make his or her way to the office of the clerk of court.

A person who desires to secure a copy of certified court records from the clerk of court should follow these relatively simple procedures. Note that to get the certified copies, the searcher must first visit the office of the clerk of court and to submit a request letter personally. The request letter would take some time to process, but the letters are generally returned after two to three business days along with a scheduled appointment for viewing the records. On the appointed day, the searcher should return to the office of the clerk of court and present his letter, and the clerk should present the record. Again, note that the clerk cannot withhold the record or any part of it.

Note as well that because these are the official records, the searcher could not take them home with him. They must remain with the office of the clerk of court in accordance with the statutory mandate of the clerk. A copy could be obtained by the searcher, however, after paying the required copying fee which is typically one dollar per page. After the copies had been made, the searcher could have them certified for two dollars per document.

Another option available to a person who desires a copy of court records would be to take the search over the net. The World Wide Web currently plays host to a number of specialized online search databases that house these information. The office of the clerk of court, in fact, operates and maintains their own database, but note that that database is still incomplete. On the other hand, the other databases are not only somewhat complete, they are also free to use and easy to understand in addition to the fact that most of them provide more information than the one that was initially requested. It must also be noted that because this is a search using the internet, the searcher could not only do it on his own, but he also need not leave the comforts of his own house, or room for that matter, to complete it.

Florida Public Records

Comprehensive Public Court Records of Florida Counties