Electronic Filing and Informational Privacy

Authors

Kyla Kitajima

Abstract

In the past few years, Internet use has grown rapidly. New technology and increased access of information are making everyday tasks and transactions easier and more efficient. By transmitting court information through an electronic medium, Internet filing is the newest way to process legal documents. Electronic filing increases judicial efficiency and cuts costs for attorneys, clients, and courts. However, the efficiency of electronic filing has a price; with the ease and convenience of the Internet comes a loss of informational privacy. Because Internet information is more readily accessible and easier to manipulate than traditional paper documents, there is a need for new safeguards to protect individual privacy interests. This note discusses possible legislative solutions to privacy problems associated with electronic filing of court documents; considers recognition of a new constitutional right to informational privacy; and concludes that recognition of a limited informational privacy right will provide a strong constitutional backdrop for the many Internet privacy claims that will undoubtedly come to light.

Recommended Citation

Kyla Kitajima, Electronic Filing and Informational Privacy, 27 Hastings Const. L.Q. 563 (2000).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol27/iss3/4