Lehigh County charges users $300 per year to search its completely scanned civil system, and it's great. All records are there and you can download them. Northampton County, which has yet to start scanning its civil records, has the advantage of being free. .
Before this system went live, it was in testing mode for several months. This is where the Brown Administration and Director of Administration Luis Campos blew it.
Brown Administration Testing Inadequate
If you want to determine whether something is really useful or needed, it's best to consult with those who use or might need it. But instead of asking for input from Civil Division employees and title searchers, Luis Campos had it tested by the local bar association. Since less than ten lawyers actually know how to use the courthouse computers, Campos would have been better off asking for monkeys.
This brings us to monkeys. Holly Ruggiero wanted title searchers to check out the new system. She knows from past experience that we may be monkeys,.but tend to find problems. So she forwarded a list containing the contact information for every title searcher willing to look at the new system, including yours truly.
Only two or three were selected. Some of this was certainly a snub of me, which is rather childish. A lot of it is arrogance, a "We know best" attitude prevalent in the Brown administration. This refusal to be more inclusive betrays a distrust of everyone. The net result is that the testing Campos did guaranteed no meaningful review.
Upon learning that the system has gone live, I did take a cursory look yesterday. Since I am a searcher, I will be looking at this much more closely and will more than likely find a few problems. But right now, the system has a pretty basic flaw that could cost the County a lot of money down the road unless it is fixed immediately.
The System Misrepresents What's In It
At the top of the search screen, you are warned, "Data updated as of 6:00 PM Eastern Time Wednesday, June 24, 2015 [or whatever the previous date might be]." Based on that assurance, anyone would be free to conclude that it is updated as of June 23, 2015.
That would be wrong.
Let me tell you why. Civil records contained in that computer system, as of this moment, are only complete up to June 2, 2014. As I have mentioned several times, the Civil Division is short-staffed, and is unable to index documents as fast as they come in. They will enter judgments and other important matters on something known as the "Daily Sheet," which is required by law. We searchers know that we have to check that Daily Sheet to get a complete picture, but most members of the public, banks and even attorneys are unaware of it.
Right now the cover date is June 2, not June 23. Anything filed after that date may or may not be in the computer system. So the County is actually inadvertently misrepresenting its own records.
Why does this matter?
Let's say you own a property and have judgments for $1 million, all filed after June 2 but not yet in the system. Let's say that you decide to borrow some money from a bank for a trip to Vegas and "forget" to mention them. Based on the assurances on the Civil Division webpage that it is current through June 23, a bank could mistakenly and reasonably conclude that there are no liens against you and give you $2 million, secured by a mortgage or judgment that is not worth the paper it's written on because $1 million in judgments are in front of it.
In the meantime, you blow your wad playing black jack, and leave the bank is high and dry.
Do you honestly think the bank is just going to chuckle and write it off? No, it's going to sue, and one of the Defendants will almost certainly be the County.
How to Fix
This web page disclosure needs to be clarified. In fact, the disclosure at the top should warn the reader NOT to rely on information. For example, an online assessment guide in Northampton County warns, "Please note that this site is considered a demonstration and, as such, the accuracy or currency of data cannot be guaranteed." That's what should appear with the online civil records.
It would be there now except that Campos was too arrogant to ask the people who actually use these records to weigh in with suggestions that might actually keep the County from being sued.
if we want Brown to listen to us, we are going to have to become consultants and charge big bucks.
Updated 6:45 pm: See my update.
