electronic legal information – in flux rob hudson head of information services nova southeastern...
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Electronic Legal Information – in Flux
Rob HudsonHead of Information Services
Nova Southeastern University Law Library & Technology Center
SARC IV - 2/27/2008
Outline
Government Information Legislation Case Law Administrative Rules
Legal Research Changing Library – Changing Expectations
Legal Scholarship Open access Rise of Blogs and Legal Podcasts
Litigation E-discovery E-filing
Tag Cloud
Problem
How can Government Information become better accessible to citizen researchers?
How can legal researchers find
electronic information faster and
easier?
Government Information in flux
Federal E-government Act of 2002 Public Law 107-347 (E-Government Act of
2002).
?
Government Information
Federal E-government Act of 2002 Public Law 107-347 (E-Government Act of
2002). Exploit recently established infrastructure. Coordinate IT planning and common use of
architecture and infrastructure. Strengthen core information management
systems and collaboration. Consolidate technical and operational support
Government Information
Goal: making Federal Information accessible to searches by various sources Issue: Commercial Search Engines – 75% of
citizens search for Gov’t Info this way
Ex. Google search for “small farm loans” not get to DofA site – produces advertisements for commercial loans
Government Information
Goal: making Federal Information accessible to searches by various sources Search engines index less than 40% of
government information Lack of Sitemaps Robot.txt files Deep Web Problem common to databases
Many Government
Websites seem impossible to
search
Government Information
Goal: making Federal Information accessible to searches by various sources Creation of FirstGov.gov
Government Information
Goal: making Federal Information accessible to searches by various sources USA.gov – still only reaches 50 % of content
available
Government Information
Much more needs to be done to contend with the policy of making E-government searchable
Encourage sitemaps Discourage invisible web protocols – like
robot.txt files Open source Searchable metadata
Government Information
2nd Goal: provide consistent and transparent information
Government Information
Goal: provide consistent and transparent information architecture
Section 207 of the E-Government Act specifically mandates that each agency director be responsible for creating guidelines for their agency’s Web
Government Information
Goal: provide consistent and transparent information architecture
Example from the Department of Labor
Over 47 Major Gov’t agencies!
Government Information
Attempts to consolidate agency material difficult For Example - Regulations.gov
One of the worst
Federal websites
Government Information
3rd Goal: Open Access Government
Government Information
3rd Goal: Open Access E-Government Example: Federal Blogging: GovGab
With RSS!
Government Information
3rd Goal: Open Access E-Government Example: Open CRS Reports
S.RES.401
CRS Reports were very
hard to obtain before!
Problem
With all the electronic Government Information, how are we to know the text is valid – that is authenticated?
Problem
With all the electronic Government Information, how are we to know the text is valid – that is authenticated?
Can we know the information is reliable? To make decisions based on this information it
must be dependable.
Authentication in flux
GPO’s Authentication Initiative Issue: digital technology makes such
documents easy to alter or copy, leading to multiple non-identical versions that can be used in unauthorized or illegitimate ways.
Authentication
GPO’s Authentication Initiative GPO introduced a digital certificate to apply
digital signatures to PDF documents Public Law 110-3
Example - digitally signed and certified PDF files of the fiscal year 2009 Budget.
Wonderful news!
Authentication
At the State Government level there is no consistency as to online documents AALL: State-By-State Report on
Authentication of Online Legal Resources (March 2007).
Key Finding 1: States have begun substitute online official legal sources
Key Finding 2: Ten states and D.C. have deemed as official one or more of their online primary legal resources
Authentication
At the State Government level there is no consistency as to online documents
“A significant number of the state online legal resources are official but none are authenticated or afford ready authentication by standard methods. State online primary legal resources are therefore not sufficiently trustworthy. Citizens and law researchers may reasonably doubt their authority and should approach such resources critically.”
If the primary, online legal
resources are not trustworthy, how can I use
them?
What about Courts?
More courts are placing decisions and orders online
Requiring e-dockets Making online sources ‘Official.’
Meaning they can be cited to in pleadings
Can these be authenticated
?
What about Courts?
Example: Alaska, Indiana, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Utah have declared the online versions of legal resources a substitute for a print official source. None of the online legal sources is capable of
being considered authentic.
What about Courts?
Electronic versions are changing the way courts treat legal information New rules allowing citation to unpublished
cases because they are now so available electronically
Court rules are being
changed by electronic
technology?
What about Courts?
Electronic versions are changing the way courts treat legal information
E-filing fully electronic docket system. Those highly wired courts -- along with the
nearly 10-year-old federal electronic system called Pacer -- have set a higher standard for electronic access and are drawing other state courts, such as those in Illinois, Florida and California, toward technological benefits.
Access to legal information as never before
Legal Research – in flux
Changing law libraries Cancelling of print resources Just in time collection polices ABA – allowing count of titles not volumes for
the first time in academic law libraries
Legal Research – in flux
Changing legal research preferences Law students almost universally expecting
online access to legal information
Legal Research – in flux
Changing legal research preferences Law students almost universally expecting
online access to legal information Problem is that unless they have access later
as practitioners, a growing amount of legal information is becoming password protected
Legal Scholarship – in flux
Open access verses subscription journals SSRN Bepress
Rise of Blogs and Legal Podcasts Evidence that they are overrunning traditional
law reviews – blawgsearch Tenure committees are valuing these towards
retention for the first time Law Reviews
Still dependant on print – sourcing is a problem, particularly the search for pagination.
Legal Scholarship – in flux
New Sources of Legal Information on the Rise
Law Firm Sponsored Websites E.g. McNabb & Associates – extradition
Legal Scholarship – in flux
New Sources of Legal Information on the Rise
Free Access to Law Websites WorldLII EISIL Public Law Library
Litigation – in flux
E-discovery E-filing E-research E-government E-clients CSI type-effect
Changing practice at every level
Outline – redux
Government Information Legislation Case Law Administrative Rules
Legal Research Changing Library
Legal Scholarship Open access Rise of Blogs and Legal Podcasts
Litigation E-discovery E-filing
For review…
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