Madison County Public Records

Public policy and other check and balance functions are only two reasons why the documents that are classified under the umbrella of Madison County Public Records are considered to be available at all times to all people regardless of their circumstance or the reason behind their search.

These documents serve the important function of not only the two mentioned above, but also for the more important reason of providing information to the general public. It must be remembered that these documents contain information not limited only to the names of the parties that are involved in the proceedings that caused these records to be created in the first place, but also the actual minutes of the proceedings that involve those parties. More often than not, these records also contain the reasons behind why the parties had caused for the proceedings to being with in the first place. This makes these documents very important not only during the requisite check and balance functions that are required by the different laws that govern them, but also for important background information and for information.

 The importance of public documents is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that no less than a Florida statute had recognized their importance and had made them available to the public. Under the law, public documents are not only considered to be available at all times to the public, they must be made available without regard to the circumstances why they are being asked for in the first place. This means that the official custodians of these documents, which the same law identifies as the clerk of courts, could not validly deny anyone the right to actually look into the documents.

As the official custodian of public records, the clerk of courts maintains, keep, and secure the original copies of these documents. Therefore, it stands to reason that the first place that a person who wants to view these records would be this office. Note, however, that there is a procedure that one must follow before they could actually look into the records. Although available at all times, the clerk of courts must still somehow secure these original documents, and this is how they do it. The procedure is simple enough and requires the searcher to actually proceed to the office and make the request there. Note that while the clerk could not refuse anyone the right to look into the records, it is better to just leave the search to the clerks because, presumably, they could find the records better, by virtue of being the ones who are more familiar with their filing method.

Once the records had been located, the searcher could have them copied after paying the required fee which is one dollar per page usually, then have them certified for an additional two dollars per document. The original copies could not actually be taken out of the archives of the clerk of court because someone else may need these documents in the future.

Another method of searching for public records would be to use the World Wide Web where an undeterminably large number of online databases have sprung up over the past few years. These databases are often connected with the government, but they do provide more information because they are connected to other databases. In addition, they are internet searches, which mean that they are faster, more efficient, and would not require the searcher to actually fall in line in an office that may be several hours journey away from their homes.

Florida Public Records

Comprehensive Public Court Records of Florida Counties