« Ind. Decisions - Supreme Court decides one today | Main | Ind. Gov't. - Dispute about lowering twp. trustee salary in northern Indiana township »

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Ind. Courts - "Calif. High Court Reflects on Brief Policy"; What About Indiana?

That first clause is the heading to this story today by by Mike McKee of The Recorder, whose report begins:

Hoping to avoid a potential copyright fight, the California Supreme Court might soon stop shipping copies of attorneys' briefs to Westlaw and LexisNexis and, instead, post them online for all takers.

"It's still a work in progress, but it's something I'm giving my attention to," Beth Jay, principal attorney to Chief Justice Ronald George, said Thursday. "We're looking to be in a neutral position, providing information to the public."

The Supreme Court was called on the carpet in July when Irvine lawyer Edmond Connor wrote to complain about the court's practice of providing copies of the legal briefs attorneys file with the state's six appellate courts to legal publishers, which, in turn, make them available to the public for a charge.

"The briefs provided to the Supreme Court," the Connor, Fletcher & Williams partner wrote, "are valuable public resources which should be used for the public good, not given away to large corporations to enable them to reap sizable profits."

What about Indiana? See this April 30, 2005 ILB entry, which includes the following:

On April 14th 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." [ILB - emphasis added]

ILB - 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.

Who, other than the parties in the case (who already are on the distribution list) might be interested in reading Indiana appellate briefs, if they were freely available?

  • People (scholars, students, attorneys interested in keeping up in an area, the interested public) who watch the oral arguments online would benefit greatly from being able first to review the briefs, and the lower court's opinion.
  • People who are interested in a contentious case, such as the recent same-sex marriage case before the Court of Appeals, and the post-Blakely/Booker cases before the the Court of Appeals and Supreme Courts, who need ready access to ALL the documents -- here we are talking about dozens of briefs.
  • People who read a decision and want to read the parties' arguments, and people who want to see a cross-section of arguments made, and cases cited, about a particular issue.
In short, the same people who read the courts' opinions and listen to oral arguments on the Court's public website should be able to access the briefs there. Is is disappointing that they can't.
Nearly 5 years have passed since that decision was made.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 3, 2009 03:29 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts