Karimi & Associates Law Firm represents according to Courthouse News Services:
The online civil court system of Virginia state has been found violating First Amendment rights of the press and public over restricting reporters and journalist’s access to civil complaints.
Based on first amendment rights of press and public, they have the right to have free access to the most civil records but by the virtue of the Officer Remote Access System, known as OCRA, only the embroiled parties and attorneys of case has the right to access online documents of the complaint and journalists should physically go to state courts to view the very same documents, which lawyers and judges have easy online access.
Due to application of this system, Courthouse News Services (CNS) filed a lawsuit against the executive secretary of the supreme court of Virginia and clerk of circuit court asserted that these two authorities have power to grant the public and news outlets digital access to civil complaints and that withholding this access violates the First Amendment.
Ryan Abbot, CNS bureau chief, responded positively to the ruling, stating, “An attorney can fire up their computer and see complaints from across the state in minutes, while reporters have to drive hundreds of miles in a day only to make it to a number of courthouses you could count on one hand. That’s restricting access and violating the First Amendment.”