Rory Perry: Privacy and Public Access

Digital preservation

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:58:07 GMT

As court records increasingly become digital, long-term storage, preservation and security become more important. A variant of PDF 1.4, the PDF/A standard (see ISO-19005)is a special format for long-term preservation that was recently adopted. More information about these efforts in the government context is available at the Library of Congress' Digital Preservation website.

WV Appellate Briefs on Westlaw

Fri, 13 May 2005 20:20:45 GMT

Since November 2004, appellate briefs in cases set for argument have been made available for free as scanned PDF files on the Court's web site. As of May 12, 2005, those appellate briefs are now available on Westlaw for those who subscribe to the Litigator package. The database is WV-SCT-BRF. There's a guide available. In addition to the full text of the brief, West adds a Table of Authorities with KeyCite information for the cases cited, and hyperlinks to all cases cited. I checked this afternoon, and the service is up-to-date, containing briefs in cases argued as recently as Wednesday of this week.

New proposed standard for legal documents on the Web

Wed, 02 Mar 2005 23:57:51 GMT

LegalXHTML.org is a promising new kid on the block in the world of proposed standards for structured legal documents on the web. The technical specification [pdf], relies on the W3C's XHTML 2.0, and Dublin Core elements that conform to the Resource Description Framework. From the site:

Legal XHTML weaves these three building blocks - XHTML2, RDF, and Dublin Core - into a straightforward grammar which preserves for legal instruments the same flexibility familiar to authors and technical staff who today publish non-legal HTML documents on the Web. The result is that Legal XHTML encourages the development of sophisticated business practices regarding the content, exchange, and use of legal instruments by its parties and other interested individuals.

New e-filing blog

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:47:42 GMT

Electronic Filing & Service for Courts is a new blog that tracks development and implementation of electronic filing projects nationwide. David Darst of LexisNexis File & Serve is the blog's author, and he does a good job of collecting news items from around the country related to electronic filing projects.

Open access to peer reviewed research

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 21:33:02 GMT

Open Access News, edited by Peter Suber. This group blog covers the "open access movement," which focuses on "open access to peer-reviewed research articles and their preprints." There's some interesting crossover between the academic open access movement and the effort to provide open access to the courts by removing the practical obscurity associated with large groups of court records.

WV Supreme Court Opinion Summaries, RSS feeds, and briefs online

Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:47:21 GMT

Summaries of 34 opinions of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia issued in the closing days of the September 2004 term were posted today, completing the summaries of all opinions issued in the previous term of court. These summaries comprise the content of Issue #74 of the e-mail opinion summary service. [Subscribe to the e-mail service here. Alternatively, subscribe to the RSS feeds for: Recent Opinions, Civil Topics, Criminal Topics or Family Topics. To learn more about courts and RSS feeds, read this explanation.]

The January 2005 term of court commences tomorrow with a full Motion Docket and Argument Docket. As a new feature, the briefs in cases set for argument are now posted online, approximately two weeks prior to the scheduled argument. Visit the relevant Argument Docket link on the Court's main calendar page to see the list of available briefs.

Finally, as usual, tomorrow's appellate proceedings will be webcast live.

Florida courts attempt to deal with data miners

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 20:37:54 GMT

In 2003 the Florida Supreme Court put a moratorium on electronic filing of court records until it receives recommendations from an appointed panel on how best to protect the public from data collection agencies. According to this story in yesterday's Palm Beach Post, the committee is considering a solution that would allow judges to screen certain documents from the public court file in order to preclude the "garbage-in, garbage-out" effect.

Other Resources include:

Official website of Florida's Committee on Privacy and Court Records
Public Access to Court Records, with resources from several state committees as well as model policy guidelines, maintained by the National Center for State Courts
Wired News: "Court Documents Not Fit For Web?" (November 23, 2004).

Court technology headlines you DON'T want to see

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 15:15:38 GMT

Courtsmart malfunction may affect conviction: Collier County Florida criminal trial under review after new system for recording video and audio record of the trial apparently failed.

Court web site easy pickings for identity thieves: Allegheny County Prothonotory's Office is "scanning in everything that comes across our desk."

Public Domain case citations

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 14:51:09 GMT

David Starkoff discusses medium neutral citations in Australian courts, including the recognition that wide dissemination "requires cooperation from those who see the diminution (or elimination) of revenue streams . . . ."

More information at the Australasion Legal Information Institute (AustLII), Guide to Vendor and Medium Neutral Citations. Thanks to Denise Howell for the link.

Law Library of Congress

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 19:38:07 GMT

Upon following beSpacific's link on forthcoming updates to the Global Legal Information Network, I discovered the Law Library of Congress. Apart from the slighly-ominous-sounding global network, the Law LIbrary of Congress has a some interesting online resources, including an image of page one of the Magna charta cum statutis angliae, a reading room, and a Guide to Law Online.

For future reference

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 17:52:52 GMT

PDF facing new accessibility challenges at some government Web sites.

From PlanetPDF.com:

A pair of recent news items from Ireland and New Zealand indicate that concerns remain in some quarters over the proliferation of PDF creation and distribution on governmental Web sites, particularly related to the need to make public documents accessible.

[GovTechNews: A government-technology blog]

Super-sealed court records in Connecticut under review

Mon, 02 Feb 2004 13:32:01 GMT

On ongoing controversy in the state of Connecticut involves the practice of "super-sealing" certain court cases so that the very existence of the file is not disclosed by the court clerks. Although state trial court judges voted unanimously last May to ban the practice, federal litigation is continuing over cases filed before the new rules were adopted. The Connecticut Record-Journal is one of many media entities that have filed amicus briefs urging access to docket sheets and orders in the cases previously sealed. In this story on Sunday, the Record-Journal reprints substantial excerpts from the amicus brief filed on their behalf.

Federal information controls

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 00:53:28 GMT

This recent coverage of federal efforts to roll back public availability of certain government information. Both USNews and NOW with Bill Moyers have stories, based upon a recent collaberative investigation. [via beSpacific]

Legal Information Systems News

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 20:47:14 GMT

The 16th Annual International Conference on Legal Information Systems, or JURIX 2003, will be held December 11-12 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In conjunction, a call for participation has been issued by the Liebniz Center for Law for a one-day "International Workshop on the Development of Standards for Describing Legal Documents". The conference will profile Italian, Swiss and Dutch efforts in this area. There are several international legal standardization bodies at work on XML markup standards for legal information, including MetaLex (which has produced version 1.0 of a language independent markup standard) and LexML.

Continuing to grapple with the electronic release of confidential information in court files, courts in Florida and New Hampshire have recently taken action on the recommendation of study committees in this area. [I'm obliged to beSpacific for the link.] One of the issues faced by courts that release bulk data to the information industry is the downstream effect of erroneous information in the bulk set, as well as subsequent changes to the data. For example, how are expungements and pardons handled? What about erroneous entries? What damages flow from erroneous or private data released to an outside source? One aspect of the issue -- whether damages are available under the Privacy Act for governmental release of private information where no actual damages are proven -- will be considered at oral argument tomorrow before the US Supreme Court in the case of Doe v. Chao [Docket | Briefs]. Wired News has this report.

Blawgs, transparency, and public confidence in the judiciary

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 17:42:49 GMT

"What Has Your Blawg Done For You, Your Clients, Your Profession Lately?". In her current thoughts on the value of a lawyer publishing a web log, Denise Howell is right again. One point strikes close to home for me:

There's a parallel when it comes to the legal process. Everyone, inside and outside of the business world, has concern and confusion about how their behavior might fare under the scrutiny of courts and regulators. The more transparency the legal field provides, the more those potentially in need of legal services can come to see the profession and its professionals as Allies, not enemies. [link omitted]

One facet of providing open access to the courts includes providing this transparency. Weblog publishing software and the rise of blawgs has demonstrated that making the arcana of practice and procedure more widely available is possible (and now unstoppable) with minimal effort. From my own experience, I can cite the tangible benefit of better public access to court knowledge as a result of publishing official court weblogs over the past eighteen months. Though it's hard to measure, I would posit that this increased transparency translates into increased public confidence in the judiciary.

Complete Australian High Court Decisions Online for Free

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 16:34:57 GMT

"[T]he High Court of Australia database on AustLII is now among the few complete free access online national courts databases of any country, back to the first decision of the Court." [Australasion Legal Information Institute] [links added]. The database includes decisions since 1903.

CTC8 Continues

Wed, 29 Oct 2003 20:41:46 GMT

Another long day exploring court technology at CTC8 in Kansas City. I've now spoken twice about syndication and official court weblogs as a tool for improving public access. Also timely is a front-page article in the Court Technology Bulletin (no link yet) I authored entitled "Publishing an Official Court Weblog." The concept is new, and may be slow to take hold in the courts. However, I did learn yesterday that the Supreme Court of Utah will soon join West Virginia in providing access to its opinions via RSS. Hot topics include:

Automated performance measurement
Public access to court records -- developing policies and rules
Business process enhancement during technology implementations
Finding better ways to manage the IT budget

Federal Computer Week ran a story today about Chief Justice Toal's presentation, which is entitled "Courts must invest in IT, judge says". There's more to come tonight and tomorrow, and I'll be gathering more links as the conference moves forward for posting next week when I return to Charleston.

International court technology news

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 20:43:12 GMT

The news reports over the past week show that court technology is on the move internationally. Chief Justice BN Kirpal announced recently that the Supreme Court of India will enable e-filing in the coming months. India has an interesting government portal, with a wide variety of citizen services, including Cause Lists for Indian Courts, and the ability to lodge public grievances online. In Nigeria, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, along with the Chief Judge of Lagos State, recently emphasized the importance of pursuing electronic filing and other legal technology endeavors. In Australia, court officials recently announced an attempt to implement electronic filing and other measures to clear a backlog of criminal appeals. Finally, I heard from a collegue recently who is the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Guam, which has implemented an open source electronic filing system from Counterclaim.

Meanwhile, back in the states, Associated Press recently ran a good article outlining an issue I've written about before: whether court technology projects such as electronic filing leave the poor behind.

Free case law in California

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 20:40:18 GMT

Law Is Free.
The Metropolitan News-Enterprise: "All appellate opinions published in California since it became a state in 1850 are now available online without charge at the state courts' website, the state Supreme Court announced yesterday."
[via Bag and Baggage]

California court officials were apparently savvy enough to include a requirement that Lexis-Nexis, as a condition to obtaining the contract for the official California reports (April 2003 press release), also provide that: "The public will have free access to the official text of the opinions at a Web site hosted by LexisNexis linked to the court's Web site." As others have noted, there's a lengthy disclaimer, but California's effort is also great progress toward making the law freely available to those who cannot afford subscriptions to legal research services. Other states in the process of re-negotiating contracts with vendors providing official reports should take note.

8th National Court Technology Conference

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 21:17:52 GMT

I'm looking forward to speaking later this year at the Eighth National Court Technology Conference, or CTC8, on the topic of Building Better Public Access, (without breaking the budget). I'll be focusing on the use of weblogs to deliver public information about the courts, with a special emphasis on RSS and aggregators. I'll be airing some of the details of my presentation on this weblog between now and October, and I'll blog from the conference as well. Even if you don't plan to attend, you can enter your court's Web site in the Top Ten Court Web Site Competition. Before you do, check out the winners from CTC7.

Some details about CTC8. The conference will be held October 28-30 in Kansas City, Missouri, and will offer a variety of interesting educational sessions, including tracks for administrators, court officials and technologists. The showcase theatres and courtroom setups promise to feature all the latest wizardry. The exhibition hall will house plenty of vendors. As usual, meetings of various special interest groups will be meeting on topics such as XML, IT Auditing, Electronic Filing, Automated Court Performance Management, and many others. I also spoke at CTC7, and returned to the Court energized and having learned a great deal from my national and international colleagues. Perhaps this is the year blogging (at least of the official sort) will take hold in the courts.

Welcome back John Robb

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:22:56 GMT

John Robb's Weblog is back online at a new location, and the need to change nearly 30,000 inbound links. It's no wonder he adds this lesson learned: "NEVER (under any circumstances) publish a weblog to a domain that you don't control." I've dutifully changed the links in the right-hand navigation, but what about all the old links to John Robb content? Is there some way to search and replace within Radio to change links in old posts?

Governor vs. Legislature in Nevada Supreme Court

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 20:43:04 GMT

An interesting three-branch constitutional dispute is brewing in Nevada. The Nevada Supreme Court is presently considering an historic lawsuit filed by the governor against the legislature alleging that the legislature has failed to comply with its constitutional duty to enact a budget funding public education by July 1. According to this report in the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Chief Justice has called for briefs by Monday, and promises to expedite decision. Documents filed are available online.

National DO NOT CALL Registry Launches

Fri, 27 Jun 2003 02:30:00 GMT

The Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry will be formally launched tomorrow morning at the White House in a Rose Garden ceremony.

Comprehensive list of professional journalist weblogs

Thu, 26 Jun 2003 21:04:23 GMT

There's a comprehensive list of blogs by journalists, ("J-blogs") at Cyberjournalist.net, a project site of the American Press Institute.

Missouri Supreme Court posts historical records online

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 01:54:34 GMT

In a cooperative venture between the Missouri Secretary of State and Supreme Court, a searchable database of historical court records is now available online for free public access. Details about the project are available here. [via How Appealing]