ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis County Clerk of the Circuit Court and the Missouri office of State Courts Administrator were accused by a national news service of withholding new civil petitions from public view for days or weeks in violation of the First Amendment, according to documents filed on March 5 in St. Louis federal court.
Plaintiff Courthouse News - publisher of New Litigation Reports, Entertainment Law Digest and Daily Brief - complains that new civil petitions e-filed in the Missouri eFiling System are withheld from the public for up to several weeks while awaiting processing by the defendants' courthouse staff.
The lawsuit says that Missouri's e-filing system is essentially identical to those used in other states, but other states allow public access to new e-filed suits as soon as receiving them.
Courthouse News says the County Clerk Joan M. Gilmer and the State Courts Administrator Kathy S. Lloyd are violating its First Amendment right of timely access to new civil petitions, and accuses the defendants of ignoring or rejecting the plaintiff's suggestions for remedying the issue.
The defendants are sued with one count of violating the First Amendment and litigation fees.
Courthouse News is represented by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP of St. Louis.