Iowa agrees to speed up access to civil court cases as part of lawsuit settlement

, the Des Moines Register reported Monday. The newspaper publishing company Lee Enterprises, based in Davenport, Iowa, and Courthouse News sued the state's court administrator in May, seeking quicker access to newly filed lawsuits. On Wednesday, parties in the lawsuit notified the court of a settlement. In the era of paper court records, newly filed petitions were available for public review at a county court clerk’s office.

The lawsuit had argued that there was no reason for the delay, noting that even federal courts make new filings automatically available online before official processing is complete. It also cited a “qualified” First Amendment right for the media to view and report on the documents. The new link to pre-processing filings will be available to those who complete user agreements on Iowa Courts Online. The parties told the judge it could take about a month to set up the new system.

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Iowa agrees to speed up access to civil court cases as part of lawsuit settlementThe state of Iowa will provide “contemporaneous” access to newly filed civil court cases to settle a lawsuit that accused the state of violating the First Amendment by delaying access to those filings.
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