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Saturday, September 16, 2006

Ind. Courts - More on the ILB's award from the Indiana Judges Association

At a luncheon Thursday (9/14/06) in South Bend the Indiana Judges Association awarded the Indiana Law Blog its annual award to a journalist selected for "outstanding efforts to educate the public about the working of the state's judicial system." (More information here.) Although I was unable to drive up to the South Bend luncheon to accept the award in person, I did send along a statement:

I am delighted to accept the 2006 Indiana Judges Association Award for reporting on the judiciary. I am very sorry I could not drive up to accept the award in person.

I want especially to thank Judge David Chidester of Porter Superior Court for nominating the Indiana Law Blog. He seems to have understood early on that a blog is just another medium for conveying a message, not that different from a newspaper or a radio station.

I started the Indiana Law Blog for a number of reasons:

  • One was to keep track of Indiana appellate decisions at both the state and federal level, and to put a spotlight on our courts.
  • Another was to bring together law-related stories from all over the state, and news from outside the state that might have an impact here, creating a kind of shared warehouse of knowledge -- I have seen too much of people in various counties re-solving the same problems.
  • And I wanted to help create an Indiana-wide legal community so no matter whether you are a big city lawyer or in an isolated rural county, whether you are located across the border from Chicago or Louisville, you can still access the internet and read material that might actually be important to you.
  • Also, and this was essential, I wanted to tie things together -- I didn't want to have to scratch my head and think -- I've read something like that before. Hence my hopefully very accessible archives, going back to 2003 and even before.
  • One more goal was to show the public that "law" impacts much of what we do and is not limited to court decisions or statute books.
  • A final goal was to be a spark for new ideas and new ways of doing things. For instance, over two years ago now the Indiana Law Blog received authority to post Supreme Court transfer lists every week. And the Indiana Law Blog has long argued for making not-for-publication opinions more available.
What about the future? I could go on and on, but here is something of particular interest to this audience -- I'd like to post more trial court rulings. I was interested to learn that the State of New York does an official publication of selected trial court opinions each year, based on precedential usefulness and public importance. I'll be writing more about this in the blog. Please keep reading!

Thank you again for your recognition of the efforts of The Indiana Law Blog.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 16, 2006 12:41 PM
Posted to About the Indiana Law Blog | Indiana Courts