Re:Keeping “Free Law” Free
by maxxxxx on Thursday January 25, 2018 @09:31AM
(#16230949)
When I heard abut this the first time I also was surprised that this stuff is not available for free. In a country governed by laws it should be one of the most important things that the law is easily accessible to all people.
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Re:Keeping “Free Law” Free
by JumpCrisscross on Thursday January 25, 2018 @09:47AM
(#16231045)
> one of the most important things that the law is easily accessible to all people
As rayiner points out [1], court filings are not case law. Decisions, the only component of a court's output that can properly be considered law, are generally freely and publicly available.
That's fine. I still think that if openness is a good thing then the legal system should be one of the first places. Everything should go into a central and open database.
Re:Keeping “Free Law” Free
by JumpCrisscross on Thursday January 25, 2018 @09:57AM
(#16231124)
> I still think that if openness is a good thing then the legal system should be one of the first places
And I would tend to agree with you. But make that argument, not something about the laws of the land being locked away. The “free law” pitch comes across as dishonest to anyone remotely familiar with the system.
I mean, they do already. The database is just the court records and you can go to the courthouse and access them. That's how its been for centuries.
I think it's time to take the records online.
Another reply claimed that it occurs that decisions are wrongly tagged and thus accidentally not available for free:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16231087
See "District Court Opinions that Remain Hidden Despite a Longstanding Congressional Mandate of Transparency – The Result of Judicial Autonomy and Systemic Indifference" by Peter Martin at Cornell. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3034399