The judicial process is an often long and arduous process that involves many months, if not years. People assume that once the case has been decided after trial, that that is the end of it, but the truth of the matter is, the end of a trial is just a stepping stone to reach the end of the process. One must not discount the appellate process because it is precisely in the appellate process that mistakes made during the courts of first resorts could be rectified. It must, however, be stressed that the justices that would decide the case at the appellate courts were not there when the trial had first started. Given this deficiency, how would these justices decide the case in accordance with the law? This is where the contents of the archives known as Hamilton County Public Records come in, specifically, the court records contained within this archive.
Court records begin their life the moment that a case is filled, regardless of the nature of the same. It would contain the name of the parties, the type of case it refers to, a brief summary of the facts that led to the filing of the case, and a statement of the claims that the plaintiff or the complainant has against the defendant in the case. Of course, as the process goes on, more documents would be appended to the records so that by the end of its life, it is possible that the record would fill an entire box.
The importance of court records in the lives of everyday people is best illustrated by the fact that no less than the law, in the form of a Florida statute, had mandated that they be part of the public records and always available to the public for any reason whatsoever. This is the reason why the official custodian of these records, mandated by the same law as the clerk of courts, could not refuse access to the records for anyone who wished to see them.
The office of the clerk of courts is the first place that one must go to if they want an official copy of a court record. This is because the clerk, as the official custodian of the court records, has the original copies on their files. In order to see the records, the searcher must first go to the office of the clerk of court and request to view the records. Of course, if the searcher has a specific record in mind that he or she wishes to see, the specifics of that record could be left to the clerk who could do the search. This is suggested to be faster than allowing the searcher to do the actual search since the clerks in the office are more familiar with the filing method.
Once the records had been located, note that they could not be taken out of the archives. These original copies are kept by the clerk of court within their archives as they are mandated to do so by law, but a copy could be made upon request and upon payment of the required fee of one dollars per document. Once copied, the copy could be certified for two dollars per document.
Another option available would be to conduct the search online. The internet plays host to a number of online database whose information are substantially the same as the ones in the archives of the clerk of court, though the same could not be certified. In addition, these databases often provide more information because they are usually networked to other databases that provide other types of information that may, nevertheless, be of some use to the searcher.
Hamilton County Court Public Records Access
To obtain copies of court records from the office of the clerk of court, follow the following procedure
- Visit the Office of the Clerk of Court in Jasper, Florida.
- Request permission to look into the records from the clerk. Note that the clerk could not deny you this right.
- Once permission is received, you may either go through the collection of records yourself, or you may ask the clerk on duty to look for the record you want.
- Once the records had been located, request for a copy of the same.
- Pay the required copying fee which is usually one dollar per page.
- Once the copies are made, have the same certified by the clerk for two dollars per document.
Hamilton County Public Records Free Access
For additional queries and requests, the following links may be of assistance
Florida Public Records
Comprehensive Public Court Records of Florida Counties