South Dakota to increase fees for online court records

A budget situation in South Dakota is forcing the court system to make changes to its records system, according to a recent statement by the chief justice of the state's supreme court. The Argus Leader reports that Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson said the court system would be forced to cut its budget by 10 percent but would not have to lay anybody off. Gilbertson said that instead, the court may have to increase some fees for access to court records online or filing fees. The cuts come after Governor Dennis Daugaard called for reductions in budgets for all state agencies, citing an increasing discrepancy in how much the agencies were taking in versus how much they were spending. "What I like about this proposal is that it does get us to 10 percent for one year by shifting some costs to the general fund from the technology side of things and allow us to maintain the viability of a system that I think performs very well," Gilbertson said to members of the Joint Appropriations Committee, according to the paper. In Maryland, lawmakers have been busy making their own court-related news. The Maryland Electronic Court Initiative will seek to get all court records online, according to the Maryland Reporter.