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Monday, January 24, 2011

Ind. Courts - Marilou Wertzler, 89, Reporter of the Courts, dies

From the obituary in the Muncie Star-Press:

Marilou Wertzler, 1922-2011, former Reporter for Supreme and Appellate Courts, State of Indiana, passed away January 14, 2011, in Palo Alto, CA. Mrs. Wertzler, who was born in Battle Creek, MI., was first elected to office in 1968 and subsequently re-elected for three additional terms serving sixteen years in the administrations of former Governors Edgar Whitcomb and Dr. Otis Bowen before retiring to California to be near her family.
Mitch Harper writes in a long entry in his blog, Fort Wayne Observed:
Indiana voters used to vote for the statewide office of Indiana Supreme and Appellate Court Reporter. The legislature abolished the elected office in the 1980's.

The last person to hold the post was Marilou Wertzler. The well-respected Mrs. Wertzler has passed away at age 89 in Palo Alto, California; her obituary was published today. * * *

The job of Court Reporter was to compile the decisions of the Indiana Supreme and Appellate Courts and then cause the official Indiana Reports to be published. This was an important function in the early decades of the State of Indiana when it was important that a continuous bound volume of state court opinions be made available for research.

The Indiana Supreme Court for some years now has contracted with a private company, West Publishing, to edit and publish the official opinions of the Supreme and Appellate Court. The versions of its opinions that the Indiana Court posts online for the public are not official: "Opinions posted here are for informational purposes only. Official copies of opinions are available from West (Thomson/Reuters)."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 24, 2011 09:02 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts