Center for Transparency & Privacy (AND Security)
Critically examining the inalienable rights of individuals and the legitimate interests of society.
The Maine Judicial Branch updated its website, by converting to the State of Maine’s governmental template. As a result some of the links in this portion of the CTAP site may not be functional. Overtime, we will attempt to update links or make notes where that is not possible.
For Court published information, visit the Maine e-Courts section of the State of Maine Judicial Branch web site:
Effective November 30, 2020, eFiling will available for at the Business and Consumer Docket cares and for all cases except for criminal, civil violations, juvenile, protection from abuse, and protection from harassment cases in Bangor courts.
eFiling will be mandatory for attorneys and self-represented parties filing more than six non-emergency cases in a calendar year.
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news/article.html?id=3745102
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news_reference/news/current/pr-efiling-coming-november30.pdf
The Portland Press Herald is taking the court system to task for failing to live up to an agreement to correct an improper practice of sealing court records en masse–rather than undertaking an individualized review of each case prior to sealing them.
“The latest case concerns the state’s Judicial Branch, which for years has been automatically sealing from public view cases in which charges were ultimately dismissed – restrictions that a federal appeals court has ruled unconstitutional.
The courts were notified of the problem in 2015 and, pushed by the Lewiston Sun Journal and other media organizations, promised to rectify it in 2016. But the changes were never made.
A Sun Journal reporter last month realized the cases were still being sealed. A court spokeswoman said that a computer program was inadvertently not updated and has now been fixed.
It’s impossible to know how many requests for these public records have been wrongly rejected in the four years since this problem was first discovered – or to put it another way, how many times a member of the public has been kept from getting the information he or she is legally entitled to.”
See Editorial: Our View: Maine public’s right to know shouldn’t be an afterthought
Portland Press Herald, November 20, 2020
“Media organizations led by the Lewiston Sun Journal objected and asserted the public’s right to know what happens in the state’s courtrooms. …
The courts ultimately pledged to reverse that policy in 2016. That change never actually happened, however, a fact realized last month by a Sun Journal reporter.
In response to renewed objections from the Sun Journal and questions from a Portland Press Herald reporter writing a news story, a court spokeswoman said Wednesday the practice would stop.
The computer system has now been reprogrammed to stop the automatic sealing – which occurred 30 days after dismissal – and the courts are rewriting the code to open the cases that were improperly sealed. In the meantime, clerks have been advised that those files should be available to the public. Cases that were sealed by court order will remain so.”
Portland Press Herald: Maine courts have improperly sealed public records for years, after agreeing to end practice
November 18, 2020
The Maine Judicial Branch postponed its roll-out date last month following a security incident reported by Tyler Technologies, the technology company that provides the Odyssey eCourts platform used by the state courts. Tyler announced that its security issues have been resolved with no impact to customers.
The Maine Judicial Branch announced that Maine eCourts and eFiling for Bangor courts and the statewide Business and Consumer docket (BCD) would be launched on November 16, 2020. Efiling will begin on November 30, 2020.
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news/article.html?id=3745098
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news_reference/news/current/pr-ecourts-new-dates-11-10-20.pdf
More information from Tyler’s investigation is needed.
More details about what the standards the Courts will use to determine if Tyler’s system is trustworthy.
More transparency about the electronic system and where the court record information will flow is warranted.
Read the Courts’ update from link below
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news/article.html?id=3587450
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news_reference/news/current/pr-ecourts-update-09-30-20.pdf
DOES THE PHYSICIAN PATIENT PRIVILEGE PROTECT UNIDENTIFIED NONPARTY MEDICAL RECORDS?
After noting that the majority of jurisdictions that have the issue have found that once identifying information has been redacted, the physician-patient privilege no longer protects nonparty medical records from disclosure, Justice Humphrey, writing for the majority stated:
“Because there is no evidence that the nonparty patients in this case intended for any portion of these confidential communications “to be disclosed to any third persons,” M.R. Evid. 503(a)(5), their medical records must be deemed to remain privileged in their unreacted forces. See, e.g., Meier, 832 N.W.2d at 259; Roe, 912 N.E.2d at 71. To hold otherwise would erode the necessary trust between physician and patient and impede the delivery of effective physical, emotional, and mental health services—the very purpose of the privilege. See M.R. Evid. 503 & Advisers’ Note to former M.R. Evid. 503 (Feb. 2, 1976); Field & Murray, Maine Evidence § 501.1 at 206; 1 Robert P. Mosteller, McCormick on Evidence § 98 at 692. The trial court erred in ordering the production of the nonparty operative notes in the circumstances of this case, and we vacate the court’s judgment to the extent it compelled their disclosure by MCH.”
The sole dissenter, Justice Jabar, wrote
“It does not make sense to hold that HIPAA and the Maine statuteprovide less protection to a patient’s confidential record than a court created rule of evidence pertaining to the same records. In this case, I believe that the trial court took sufficient steps to protect the identity of the nonparty patients whose medical records are at issue. I would affirm the trial court’s order compelling the production of the operative notes along with the safeguards ordered by the court.”
The full case ESTATE OF CAROL A. KENNELLY v.
MID COAST HOSPITAL, 2020 ME 115 can be found here:
https://www.courts.maine.gov/courts/sjc/lawcourt/2020/20me115_re.pdf
A hack into the phones and computers of the vendor that handles the Maine Judicial Branch’s computers and Maine eCourts website has forced the delay of a system expansion planned for the Bangor courts on Oct. 5.
This delay raises serious questions about the Courts’ plans to roll out an electronic court record system that has not been fully tested and when all issues have not been fully studied and considered in public view.
See the full article in the September 25, 2020 Bangor Daily News:
On Thursday, September 24, 2020, Tyler Technologies, announced it experienced a security incident involving unauthorized access to its internal phone and information technology systems by an unknown third party, but that there has been no impact to client software, including Odyssey File & Serve software being implemented by the Maine Judicial Branch.
“Since the announcement, Judicial Branch leadership has met with representatives of Tyler Technologies to discuss the breach and the timing of the Maine eCourts go-live date for most civil cases and family matters, which was scheduled for October 5, 2020 in Bangor District Court and Penobscot County Superior Court, as well as the Business and Consumer Docket statewide. Given the importance and scope of the project to the Maine courts and the citizens we serve and the lack of availability of Tyler resources due to this incident, the rollout will be temporarily postponed while Tyler completes its investigation and resolves their issues.”
See Judicial Branch full announcement on the courts’ website:
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news/article.html?id=3382590
https://www.courts.maine.gov/news_reference/news/current/pr-ecourts-postponed-09-25-20.pdf
Two days after telling its customers, Tyler Technologies finally admitted that it had been subject to a ransomware attack. As it has not provided any additional information about the attack, it is unclear exactly what happened and whether Tyler is up to the challenge of keeping Maine court record information safe from ransomware attacks of the future. It is also unclear whether this will cause the Maine court system to rethink its launch scheduled for next week.