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A comment on Show HN: Full text search on 630M US court cases. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: Full text search on 630M US court cases by zomglings on Saturday February 19, 2022 @04:56PM (#30400904)
I don't see any problem with this. These cases are in the public record, why should the public not have the ability to search them for free without requiring access to expensive legal indices?
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Re:Show HN: Full text search on 630M US court cases by ameister14 on Saturday February 19, 2022 @08:57PM (#30402521)
The public has always had the ability to search them, it's just been more difficult to do in the past.

Lowering the barriers to this is not necessarily a good thing. For example: if I have to drive to the county clerk's office to get records, I am unlikely to do so. This means that if I need the information, I will go get it, but if I do not need it, I won't bother.

The patent section being so easily searched is very useful and I see no downsides there.

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