| Organization: | Office of the State Auditor |
|---|---|
| Date published: | April 18, 2024 |
Executive Summary
In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the New Bedford District Court (NBDC) for the period July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022.
The purpose of this audit was to determine whether NBDC has closed criminal case information in an electronic format that was remotely accessible to the public, unless otherwise restricted, as required by Rule 5(a)(2) of Massachusetts Trial Court Rule XIV: Uniform Rules on Public Access to Court Records. We also determined whether NBDC ensured that at least one clerk attended all criminal sessions of the court, as required by Section 12 of Chapter 218 of the General Laws.
Our audit revealed no significant instances of noncompliance by NBDC that must be reported under generally accepted government auditing standards. However, we did identify an issue we believe warrants attention, which we outlined in the Other Matters section of this report. This issue relates to the Massachusetts Trial Court, NBDC’s oversight agency, which was outside the scope of this audit but prevented NBDC from meeting its requirements under the law.