Concerning Outstanding Bench Warrant And Confidentiality Broken By Court Clerk...

New Hampshire

My Friend Was To Show Up For Court For Two Misdemeanors. He Had A Lawyer And Had Built Up A Good Defense And Had Many Character Witnesses. A Week Before The Trial, His Lawyer Quit On Him And The Court Refused To Issue Any More Continuences. To Drown His Sorrows He Had A Couple Beers, Got In A Car Accident And Went Into A Coma. When He Did Come Out Of The Coma, His Family Advised Him To Just Leave.

He Now Has 2 Bench Warrants.

I Went To The Court House To Get Copies Of Any Court Documents Regarding Him. I Then Realized When I Got Home And Looked At Them, They Had Given Me Much More Than I Expected.

They Gave Me The Complaints, And All The Letters From The Prosecutor And Also Letters From His Lawyer To The Court, Where The Firm Was Located, Confidential Information Pertaining To The Case And Names, Address' Etc Of The Witnesses. Pretty Much Everything.

My Question Is...could A New Lawyer Represent Him And Have His Misdemeanors Thrown Out Of Court Because The Court Violated His Right To Confidentiality By Giving Out All This Information While This Case Is Still Open??

Originally Posted by SandyHunt

New Hampshire
They Gave Me The Complaints, And All The Letters From The Prosecutor And Also Letters From His Lawyer To The Court, Where The Firm Was Located, Confidential Information Pertaining To The Case And Names, Address' Etc Of The Witnesses. Pretty Much Everything.

My Question Is...could A New Lawyer Represent Him And Have His Misdemeanors Thrown Out Of Court Because The Court Violated His Right To Confidentiality By Giving Out All This Information While This Case Is Still Open??

I believe that criminal records are "Public records" unless sealed by a judge, but if am wrong I will be corrected..I'm sure.

I know the county clerk of courts here has a website, and for $5.99 I can pull up all the detailed information pertaining to crimes in my county that I want too, whether the case is still opened or not.

Oh, I have never heard of confidentiality pertaining to criminal cases unless, ordered by a judge or a minor is involved. But again I am not an attorney I am strictly stating my personal opinions based on literature and the threads in this forum, So I am sure to be corrected soon.