San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis today announced a new web page where the general public and members of the media can access basic information on open criminal cases being prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office, as well as receive email notifications when new hearing and court dates are set for specific cases.
“It’s important that members of the public, especially victims, interested in our cases have a place where they can easily find basic information,” DA Dumanis said. “This web page is in keeping with our office’s commitment to openness and transparency and allows anyone to access up-to-date information online about criminal cases.”
Case information is for felony and misdemeanor court proceedings. Information available to the public includes the defendant’s name, next court date, time and location, Superior Court case number, District Attorney case number, and the name of the judge hearing the matter. Users who would like to set up email alerts for future information in a particular case may also do so once they are viewing the open record.
Only cases where charges have been issued will be available on the website. The following cases are not included: Juvenile cases, misdemeanors occurring within the limits of the City of San Diego and the City of Poway, cases that have not been submitted to the District Attorney’s Office, cases where charges have not yet been filed by the District Attorney’s Office, and closed cases with no pending court proceedings.
Since the web page’s soft launch in December, the system has sent more than 2,000 email notifications. In the past few months, the case information page has accounted for about a quarter of all traffic on the District Attorney’s public website.
The District Attorney’s Office set up the web page, in part, to comply with Marsy’s Law. The District Attorney’s Office routinely files about 40,000 cases each year and averages a felony conviction rate of 94 percent.
