Survey of State Published Legal Information
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Transcript of Survey of State Published Legal Information
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SURVEY OF STATE PUBLISHED LEGAL
INFORMATION
Sarah Glassmeyer, JD MLSResearch Fellow, Harvard Library Innovation Lab
Hi.
CC BY-SA-NC https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/
Why?
Access to Information
is Access to Justice.
Photo CC BY-NC-ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/
Photo: CY BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2893959
How?
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Total sites visited:• 51 Code sites• 50 Regulation sites• 105 Court websites
17-18 Data Points per website
Major Conclusions
Currently impossible to do anything but the most basic
legal research using government provided websites.
There exists (at least) 14 different types of hurdles in Access to Legal Information.
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What do we mean when we say
“Access to Law”?
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Photo: http://rebrick.lego.com/en-US/bookmark/rabbit-in-the-hat/tcyfdk
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What are the Impediments to
Access?
Context
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CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/ntr23/
Cost
Citation
http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Advocacy/access/citation/neutralrules
8%
88%
2% 3%
Case Law
OfficialUnofficialMixedUnknown
Officialness of Online Version of Law
6%
90%
4%
Code
OfficialUnofficialUnknown
20%
60%
20%
Regulations
OfficialUnofficalUnknown
Corporate Control
Photo CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/
92%
3% 1%4%
All Online Publishing
StateLexisState, LexisState, West
23%
10%65%
1%
Official Print
StateLexisWestn/a
Case Law Publishing
Code Publishing
82%
14%
2%2%
Online Publication
StateLexisConwayLawriter
42%
35%
19%
4%
Official Print
StateLexisWestLexis/West
Regulation Publishing
90%
4% 4% 2%Online Publishing
StateLexisWestLawriter 6
8%
32%
Official Print
StateOther/Unknown
Copyright
Photo: CC CY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/joachim_s_mueller/
Copyright Notifications on Webpages
43%
57%
Case Law
YesNo
53%
47%
Code
yesno
30%
70%
Regulations
YesNo
NCSL 2011 Survey for Codes
21%
47%
21%
11%
Copyright Claims on Code
No Copyright ClaimState ClaimsState Claims PartialShared with Pub-lisher
http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/
http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/
33 official state codes are annotated.
http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/
33 official state codes are annotated.3 of the annotated codes are published by the state.
Content/Archives
Ranges of archival materialsCase Law (earliest date available)• Range: 1778 – 2015• Median: 1997Code (earliest date available)• Range: 1839 – 2015• Median: 1994Regulations (earliest date available)• Range: 1956 – 2015• Median: 2000
Types of Archives
29%
18%
53%
Code
Current year onlyCodeSession Law
21%
13%66%
Regulations
Current year onlyCodeRegister
CC BY ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenelsmore/
Container
8%
85%
7%
Case Law
htmlpdfmixed
89%
7%
3%
Code
htmlpdfmixed
38%
30%
32%
Regulations
htmlpdfmixed
Citators
Photo: CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixbymaia/
Currency
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/102040
Correctness
CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/
43%
57%
Case Law
DisclaimerNo Disclaimer
35%
65%
Code
DisclaimerNo Disclaimer
22%
78%
Regulations
DisclaimerNo Disclaimer
Control
Photo: CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/
8%
92%
Case Law
RestrictionNo Restriction
16%
84%
Code
RestrictionNo Restriction
22%
78%
Regulations
RestrictionNo Restriction
Cataloging
Photo CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/eldave/
CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/ejpphoto/
Conveyance
Search
16%
84%
Case Law
NoneAvailable
2%
53%45%
Code
NoneBasicAdvanced
26%
50%
24%
Regulations
NoneBasicAdvanced
Impediment Wholesale RetailContext X
Cost X X
Citation X
Corporate Control X X
Copyright X
Content X
Container X X
Citators X
Currency X X
Correctness X X
Control X
Cataloging X
Conveyance X
Search X
Further Questions and Thoughts…
It is possible that current government publishing
efforts are doing more harm than good.
What are the actual legal research needs of the public,
and what does an effective and sufficient legal information
collection look like?
Should states outsource electronic legal information publication – maybe even designate these electronic
versions official?
Do we want our states to concentrate on retail or
wholesale publication of legal information (or both)?
What is the role of libraries in all of this?
Usability and UX issues abound.
How many people are turning to pay law sites for self-help?
Other Things I’m working on…
Topic Modelling
Bug Tracking
Random Acts of Freeing the Law
Project X
Thank you!