Friday, September 20, 2013

Florida Public Records

Floridians have been accessing public documents since 1909 when the Florida Public Records Act was approved and incorporated to the Florida Statutes in Chapter 119. The law includes policies, definitions, exclusion, and general information on documents access, assessment, and replication of copies. In 1966, the Freedom of Information Act was approved and took effect the next year which releases public documents both totally and fractional of documents managed by the government.

The Act proclaims that the state is obliged to give the public access to county, state, and municipal files. The files should be available for inspection and duplication by any member of the public for as long as proper measures are observed. Files that are encoded to digital form should have the same content as the original files. Classified files remain classified even after they are digitalized.

Although the public has the right to access Free Public Records Online, there are certain files that are exempted. Such files can only be accessed by a chosen few depending on the laws of the State. Files that are exempted from examination of the public include current criminal investigations, anything concerning public agency's administration, bid proposals and many more.



Local Public Records


There are many kinds of documents that are considered as public records as defined by the Florida Public Records Act. Death certificates, Photo Archives, Health Care Management, Social Security Statistics, Criminal documents, Land Boundary Information Center, Adoption documents, Vital Statistics - Birth, Death, Marriage & Divorce -, contracts and a lot others are defined as public records.

As the years passed, more records became part of public records. Books, maps, tapes, pictures, audio records, videos, and computerized documents are just some that were added.

Fees vary depending on the type of record you want to obtain. It is inevitable that at times jargon will be used in the records and this will make it hard for ordinary citizens to decipher. Online Record providers arrange the records in such a manner that is easier to understand.