Judicial Conference Committee to Consider Archive of District and Bankruptcy Court Opinions

Judicial Conference Committee to Consider Archive of District and Bankruptcy Court Opinions. August 19, 2008

In a letter to HyperLaw dated July 28, 2008, United States District Court Judge John R. Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota and Chair of the Judicial Conference's Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, stated that this Committee would address HyperLaw's proposals to provide broader access to the lower court opinions of the federal courts. He stated that the Committee would meet in December of 2008 and would address the earlier letters sent to the Administrative Office. In the meantime, the Electronic Public Access Working Group of the Administrative Office ("AO") will be considering the issues as well.

Judge Tunheim asked that correspondence on the issue be directed to the Chief of the AO's Court Administration Policy Staff prior to September 24, 2008, in anticipation of the Electronic Public Access Working Group meeting to be held in October.

It seems that there is a general appreciation of the need to address these issues.

It is important for the policy makers to understand that access to these opinions is desired by members of the general public and interested persons, and not just attorneys. Effectively, research and quick access to all published and unpublished decisions of the lower federal courts is available only to subscribers of WestLaw and Lexis.

Policy makers also need to understand that writers and publishers of news and legal analysis, including blogs, need permanent links to these opinions, many of which are of interest not only to the general public, but to specific professions and groups impacted by many opinions.

Finally, those with vague, but ultimately hopeless, beliefs that in the future these opinions can just be scanned from West's Federal Supplement, Federal Rules Decisions, and Federal Bankruptcy Reporter need to grasp the simple truth that these print publications only contain a part of the whole.

In any event, paraphrasing the 1909 words of John B. West, what is needed are immediately available citations as and when opinions are released from the courts. In modern terms, that means exposing the opinions to search engines and linking resources the opinion identification information - court, date, docket number, docket sequence number, and, for good measure, the case name. Relying on private publishers, such as West, to provide this information for just a portion of the opinions, and many months after the release of the opinions, is in a sense retrogressive, and clearly an incomplete solution.

See HyperLaw's May 17, 2008 letter to the Administrative Office.

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON COURT ADMINISTRATION AND CASE MANAGEMENT
OF THE JUDICIAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED STATES

Chair Hon. John R. Tunheim U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Minnesota 13E United States Courthouse 300 South Fourth Street Minneapolis, MN 55415 (612) 664-5080		Staff Abel Mattos Chief Court Administration Policy Staff Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts One Columbus Circle, N.E. Washington, DC 20544
	Members of the Committee
Hon. John D. Bates U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse 333 Constitution Avenue, Northwest Washington, DC 20001	Hon. Robert J. Johnston U.S. Magistrate Judge U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada 33 S. Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89101	Hon. Amy J. St. Eve U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse 219 South Dearborn Street Chicago, IL 60604
Hon. Paul D. Borman U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse 231 W. Lafayette Blvd., Room 740 Detroit, MI 48226	Hon. Benson Everett Legg Chief Judge U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland United States Courthouse 101 West Lombard Street Baltimore, MD 21201-2605	Hon. Sonia Sotomayor U.S. Court Of Appeals, Second Circuit - The Daniel Patrick Moynihan CourthousE 500 Pearl Street NEW YORK, NY 10007
Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colon U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico Clemente Ruíz Nazario U.S. Courthouse 150 Carlos Chardón Street Hato Rey, PR 00918	Hon. Ronald B. Leighton U.S. District Court for the District of Washington Union Station Courthouse 1717 Pacific Ave Room 3100 Tacoma, WA 98402-9800	The Honorable T. John Ward United States District Court Eastern District of Texas 100 East Houston Street Marshall, Texas 75670
Hon. Julio M. Fuentes U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse 50 Walnut Street, Room 5032 Newark, NJ 07102	Hon. Steven D. Merryday U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Tampa Division Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse 801 North Florida Avenue Tampa, Florida 33602
Hon. James B. Haines, Jr. U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine 537 Congress Street 2nd Floor Portland, ME 04101	Hon. Julie A. Robinson U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas 259 Robert J. Dole United States Courthouse 500 State Avenue Kansas City, KS 66101-2400