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Monday, August 20, 2007

Courts - SCOTUS to make briefs centrally available online, the day after filing

This is a great development, as SCOTUSblog noted on Friday:

That database will be an enormously helpful resource -- to litigants, counsel, scholars, students and researchers alike. The difficulty of finding all briefs in a readable format and a timely fashion has been a fairly obvious online gap for a while now, especially for those who have no access to Westlaw or Lexis. Many thanks to Bill Suter and the Clerk's Office for establishing the database.
Indiana has nothing like this, and the ILB has been pointing that out for years. See, for instance, this ILB entry from Nov. 25, 2005 Among the points the ILB made at the time:
On April 14th [2005] David C. Lewis, Clerk of the Supreme and Appeals Courts, issued a press release announcing "Indiana Appellate Briefs Now Available Online through Westlaw." Some quotes:
Westlaw subscribers have several options for adding this service to their current subscriptions. Individuals who are not Westlaw subscribers may access the service with a credit card, paying on a per-use basis. * * *

"West's online briefs project takes us another step closer to providing the public with greater access to court records," said Clerk David Lewis. "We applaud West's commitment to this project. Not only does it provide Indiana's attorneys with a significant new tool, but it promotes our office's goal of openness and accountability in the judicial system." [emphasis added]

I'm not out to burn any bridges here, but I just don't think so. I think promoting West's project to sell the briefs makes it unlikely that they will ever be available online to the public at no cost.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 20, 2007 06:43 AM
Posted to Courts in general