The Bill Kumpe Law Firm

 

In a surprising move, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has ordered the immediate suspension of availability of all state court documents on the internet and mandated that personal information about the parties in publicly filed pleadings be redacted.  Only docket information will now be available online.

 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court Network, nationally recognized as the best state court information network in the nation, had been moving rapidly toward making many publicy filed court documents available on the internet, especialy those in the larger state court districts.  Fear of identity theft from publicly filed documents prompted the change.

 

However, some observers also suggested that the misuse of court pleadings for harrassment, stalking and defamation could have also been a factor in the court's decision.  The current system which requires that a person wishing to view publicly filed court documents appear at the court house allows court personnel to record who has had access to the information should it be misused.   

 

Many attorneys were surprised and diappointed by the situation and are suggesting that the OSCN should go to a password protected system similar to the federal RACER PACER System that would allow attorneys to access the digitally stored documents.

 

In the meantime however,  attorney's making an appearance in a case are going to have to travel to the court house of record to read the file and if they are in their home county, check it out to their firm. 

 

 

Bill Kumpe was recently a guest on the Bruce DeLay "Saturday" program on 1170 KFAQ in Tulsa.  He discussed proposed changes to the Oklahoma Code of Judicial Conduct. The podcast of that program can be heard here.

 

 

 

The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals recently held that the widow of a cardholder is liable for all over limit charges, late fees and interest on an account she continued to use after her husband's death.  While this is not news in and of itself, the underlying facts and context of the case are instructive.

 

The original cardholder is deceased. He signed the orginal cardholder agreement in 1993.  The record on appeal is unclear as to whether it was a jointly held account or the widow was only an authorized user. 

 

The credit card company did not appear in the probate of his estate.  This would normally have resulted in the debt being barred.

 

However, the widow continued to use the card and eventually could not keep the payments current.  She alleged however, that she had payed all of the charges she was responsible for and challenged the over limit fees, late fees and interest.

 

The Court of Civil Appeals held that by continuing to use the card she had  ratified the card holder agreement and was thus responsible for all charges.

 

It is not uncommon for a third or more of disputed credit card charges in a case like this to be fees, late charges and other "extra" interest.  In the past, cardholders could negotiate a settlement of these debts that would mitigate some of the most exploitive charges by credit card companies.  However, given this opinion and the trend toward mandatory arbitration in new cardholder agreements, it appears that crippling credit card charges and fees are going to be collectable in Oklahoma.

 

The widow should have allowed this debt to be handled in the probate.  One of the great benefits of probate is that when a creditor like this one does not pursue their claim it is forever barred.  However, by continuing to use the card, she likely became responsible for debts that possibly could have been charged off in the probate.

 

LEGAL HUMOR: Q: What's wrong with lawyer jokes? A: Lawyers don't think they're funny and ignorant people don't think they're jokes.