Thursday, August 12, 2010

Preserving Texas's Legal History

The on-line edition of the Houston Chronicle for August 10 carried an op-ed piece by Bill Kroger, the co-chair of the newly appointed Texas Supreme Court Historical Records Task Force. As Kroger explains:
Recently, the Texas Supreme Court created a volunteer Historical Court Records Task Force for the purpose of studying the conditions of the Texas state court archives and recommending how the state can better preserve and protect these records.

The task force's first step was to create a comprehensive survey of the historical court records in every county across the state. The task force collaborated with the Office of Court Administration to develop the survey and distribute it to more than 400 district and county clerks. More than 278 clerks responded. For the first time, the state of Texas has current statewide information about historical court records, their maintenance, and their condition.
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Hat tip; Image credit: Farmers on the steps of the Weatherford, Texas, courthouse, May 1939