The Infinite World of Public Records

The world of public records is vast and intimidating. With seemingly people ready to rob you of your hard-earned money at every turn, the road can be quite treacherous. However, after our educational visit in class last Thursday I feel vastly more apt at dealing with the wonderful world of records.

After finding out it could be commonplace for any authorities to try and charge potential patrons a higher per hour fee than necessary. However, I learned that they can only legally charge you as much money as the lowest paid employee. This was comforting as I cannot afford to pay some $50 an hour.

I also learned that juvenile records are indeed protected from public record. I had heard that before, but I was never sure so it was good to have the matter settled.

I feel as though I should have known that medical/financial records are confidential, because in every cheesy hospital television show, doctor-patient confidentiality is thrown around like a high school cheerleader at a football game. I also chalk this up to the fact that seemingly every suicide, murder-suicide, domestic disturbance, etc. reported on television is seemingly attributed to a history of mental illness or financial problems in this troubled economy.

The fact that payrolls do not have to be distributed from a place of employment if requested also surprised me. I could have sworn that this particular instance was used in common example of the information that can be obtained in public records.

Also I learned that you public records offices cannot make any new graphs/records. For instance if I wanted to know how many elected officials under 35 have criminal records I would have to request both records and make the graph myself. As both of these records would be kept but not together they cannot make the record for you.

Lastly, just the pure vastness of the information that can be obtained through public records is overwhelming as almost anything you could want is available. Countless times a simple check of public records has resulted in the exposure of criminal activity. As an aspiring journalist this is perhaps the closest I will come to busting a bad guy and that's still pretty exciting.