Mississippi Electronic Courts, or MEC, is the new electronic filing system for Mississippi Chancery and Circuit Courts. Think PACER, but for state court. It is currently operating as a pilot program in Madison County Chancery Court, but other courts will be added to the program in the near future, including Hinds County Circuit. You can register here.
The homepage for MEC is here, and the FAQ for MEC is here. And yes, the public will be able to register for a "PAMEC" account, which will allow any person to query cases and view the documents filed therein. Attorneys will have two accounts, one for PAMEC, which allows viewing of dockets and case files, and a MEC account, which will allow electronic filing.
Major kudos to the AOC, MS Supreme Court, and the Bar for working to get this done.
Going Behind Closed Doors
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I have just been informed by a reliable source not to expect Hinds County Circuit to go online until 2010.
Bullshit. It doesn't allow for non-attorneys to register. What a surprise. The good ole boys club is at it again.
How do we get this changed? Who makes the decision and what is the legal basis for denying the public access to the filings?
Below is my question and the response from MEC. Notice the lack of an answer to the second part of my question, other than that
"The documents available through MEC are also available to the general public at the clerk's office." Which is beside the point, isn't it, if you are providing another way to access the data with public funds but are not providing equal access?
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What is the policy for allowing non-attorneys access to filings, and if there is no access
what is the legal justification for denying it?
Thank you for your inquiry. At this point in the pilot testing of MEC, remote access to the court records in MEC is limited to registered attorneys. The documents available through MEC are also available to the general public at the clerk's office. As part of the continued pilot testing of MEC, remote access for non-attorney users will be an added feature. Please check the MEC webpage for future updates related to non-attorney registrations.
By the way, does anyone on this site know the history and reasoning behind how mediation works in this state? I'm from up north, and the whole point to the programs up there is to resolve matters before they get to lawyers and the courts. Yet down here you can only be a mediator if you are a lawyer?
Is it the lawyers protecting their turf?
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