WEST PALM BEACH — First seat belts. Then air bags. Now the black box.

Although seat belts and air bags are standard in American automobiles, most car owners have no idea that a "black box" is recording their every traffic move.

But police, insurance companies and attorneys are realizing that the black boxes — sometimes called event data recorders — are more valuable in the courtroom than in a car.

An attorney from Palm Beach County currently represents a Tequesta woman in an accident case in which the black box could provide valuable information.

But attorney Ed Ricci knows that having the black box and allowing the car's owner access to its information are separate issues.

"This is an attempt by the industry to remain as secretive as it can," Ricci said. "What we see is an anti-consumer attitude."

There has been debate through the years over who owns the information in the black boxes and how it can be used.

Mostly, the information from the boxes is used as evidence in trials, proof for insurance investigators and help for auto manufacturers in detecting shoddy work.

"It's a great tool," said Jim Harris, owner of Harris Technical Services, a Port St. Lucie company that specializes in car-crash reconstruction and uses the black box data. "The safety benefits far outweigh everything else."

Although the public has been largely oblivious to the black box, that appears to be ending.

On Thursday, California became the first state to regulate black boxes in cars, prohibiting anyone from using the information without the car owner's permission or a court order.

Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began establishing standards to regulate black boxes on all privately owned vehicles. It also asked auto makers to install them voluntarily in all new cars by September 2008. But the federal regulatory agency stopped short of calling for mandatory installation because it believes auto makers will do it voluntarily.

The black box provides a statistical account of the driver's actions seconds before and during a crash, measuring everything from speed to force of impact.

Although black boxes first appeared in cars in the 1970s, when car manufacturers began installing air bags, it wasn't until about 1999 that some were upgraded to include data recorders. By 2000, some companies began selling a data-retrieval system.

Boxes belong to car owners

Until black boxes become standard, legal battles continue. General Motors and Ford Motor Company, leaders in black box technology, acknowledge that data recorders belong to the car owner, but getting the information isn't as easy as hooking up a computer to your car.

Most customers gain access through civil courts, not the car companies.

Ricci sued Ford and air bag maker Autoliv in April on behalf of his client, Deborah Coppola, who was involved in a crash in her 2003 Jaguar S-type on Nov. 28, 2003.

Coppola, who sustained pelvic fractures, was struck on the driver's side by a 1998 Lexus at an intersection in Jupiter. Her air bags failed to deploy, which may have compounded her injuries.

"Knowing why they didn't deploy would be beneficial," said Coppola, who was cited by police for failure to yield the right of way at a stop sign.

Coppola was immobilized for four months because of the crash. She believes the data will show she stopped at the stop sign and the other driver was speeding.

"I think it will exonerate me," she said.

Autoliv has agreed to download the information, but Ricci must hire his own experts to interpret it. Once Autoliv downloads the data, Ricci said, the company plans to give him a printout that resembles a cash register receipt.

Ricci's experts will analyze the numbers. He believes car companies intentionally hide black box information from consumers to avoid product liability.

Not so, said Kathleen Vokes, a Ford spokeswoman. The company concedes that the information is the property of the customer.

"We always work with the appropriate authority to retrieve the data when necessary," Vokes said. "We would not just download the data unless we had the appropriate consent from the customer or the sufficient legal authority such as working with the court or an accident investigation."

Data hurt previous client

Ricci is no stranger to black box litigation. In 1999, he sued General Motors on behalf of the family of Jerome Brown, a star defensive tackle for the University of Miami and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Brown died in a 1992 single-car crash in his hometown of Brooksville, near Tampa. A jury ruled that Brown's negligence while driving his Corvette killed him and his 12-year-old nephew.

During the trial, GM used black-box data in Brown's car to help make its case. Brown was going 51 mph in a 30-mph zone and was on the wrong side of the road when he hit a tree and power pole and flipped the car.

Since then, the federal government, the auto industry and law enforcement have struggled with regulating the use of the data.

Clarence Ditlow, staff member at the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, said there should be no question about ownership. Recent civil litigation has forced car companies to make the data more available.

"It takes a significant device to read out the information in the black box," Ditlow said. "Unless you have access to these diagnostic modules, the black box is virtually worthless."