Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: ques about Freedom of Information Act

Most criminal case files are public and can be reviewed without anything as formal as a FOIA request. If all you want to do is look at the files, you should contact the clerk's office in Ventura and ask them what you need to do. Some of the older files are probably only available on microfilm, but they should still be viewable. Getting some of these older files may take time and might require making arrangements in advance.

All of this presumes it is easy to figure out which case files you want to see. If you have case numbers that will make it easy, but the less information you have the harder it will become. If you know the defendant's name that will help, but if the name is Jim Smith there will be several files to examine. The clerk's office won't do much legwork at this point; you will either have to figure out for yourself which files you want or pay someone else to do it for you.

If you actually want copies of these files you may be in for a shock. Most courthouses will make copies for you, but only at very high prices (here in L.A. the current price is 57 cents per page). Case files can be very large, so you will burn through a lot of money if you're not careful. You may want to view the files in person and decide which pages you want; chances are that the pages you want are just a small fraction of what the file contains, so you can probably get what you need at a much more reasonable cost this way.

Another option is to send an attorney service or copy shop to the courthouse to make the copies for you or to microfilm the documents and print them out later. Your service won't be allowed to remove the file from the clerk's office, so it will have to bring portable equipment to get the job done. Keep in mind that the service won't be able to figure out which pages you want. You may need to get a copy of the case docket to see what is in the file beforehand so you can tell the service which documents to ignore.

A final note: I said earlier that *most* files are publicly accessible. The major exception is juvenile cases. Those files are confidential and can only be accessed with a court order -- which is not easy to get. I have represented several juvenile defendants on appeal, and even *I* sometimes needed a court order before I could see the file. Once, the juvenile court actually denied my request and I had to get the Court of Appeal to order it to let me see the file. Unless you have a *very* good reason for wanting to see a juvenile case file, there's basically no point in trying.

A final note: in cases involving sex crimes the victim's last name is normally removed from the record. If the information you seek includes the names of any sex crime victims, you are likely to be disappointed.

Re: ques about Freedom of Information Act

I have been there and done that. The courthouse in Ventura is beautiful, but the clerk's office destroys case files after five years or so and no, there is no microfilm except perhaps for what is called the "judgment roll" (the judgment and a very few other documents from the case), if that. You have to physically visit the clerk's office to look up whatever is there, especially if you don't know the case number (ask for the "civil index"). Good luck and enjoy the drive to Ventura, because that may be all you get.