Regulations.gov Begins the Move to Beta

Law students who are finishing up the Legal Research Bootcamp sessions have likely already completed the module on Congress.gov and Regulations.gov. The session on Regulations.gov mentioned that the content of the "classic" site was being migrated to a new "beta" site, which would launch officially at some time in the future.

Well, as is true for many of us during these times, it appears to be officially "Blursday" for Regulations.gov. Starting recently, Thursday is "Beta Day," meaning that the only version of Regulations.gov that you will be able to access every Thursday is the beta. If you try to access the classic site on Thursdays, you will automatically be redirected to the beta one. This will be true even if you click on "For the official site, visit www.regulations.gov" link at the top of the beta site.

Although you can easily access the classic site on any other day of the week, if you did attempt to use it on a Thursday, you will have to either (1) clear your cache, or (2) use a different browser for your research in order to see the classic version again. (Confusing, we know! There should now be a banner at the top of either site with this warning...which appears on every day but Thursday).

Regulations.gov was launched with the stated purpose of encouraging greater public participation in the rulemaking process by creating, in essence, a "one-stop shop" for access to rules open for comment. Many agencies, in addition, use the portal as a place to receive comments directly from the public, making it as easy to submit one as pressing a button on the screen. Not all agencies, though, receive e-comments through Regulations.gov, and a list of participating and non-participating agencies can be found here.

By redirecting patrons to the beta site every Thursday, the administrators are hoping to get more robust feedback on the usability, functionality, and tools it has to offer. Currently, there are several significant differences between the two versions, including:

• Beta is built with a responsive design for better compatibility with mobile devices.
• Beta automatically separates search results into Docket, Document, and Comment tabs, allowing for easier navigation between the results.
• Beta currently lacks access to agency reports required by statute.
• Beta no longer allows you to browse regulatory material by agency, as the administrators found it had "limited usage."
• Beta does not currently allow you to export comments into a CSV file.

A more complete list of differences between the two versions can be found on the beta site’s FAQ page, along with justifications for the transition to the beta version and a history of its creation. For additional questions about using either the classic or beta site, or anything else related to regulatory research, please feel free to Ask a Librarian.

--Wickliffe Shreve, Faculty & Scholarly Services Librarian

Resources for Docket Research

This week's Legal Research Bootcamp session on dockets came at just the right time! Whether you’re a law student enrolled in the online bootcamp or not, you may be interested in several important changes to major resources for researching court filings.

Last week, the federal court site PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) unveiled a redesign to its home page and informational sections, the first such cosmetic change in more than ten years. (The PACER database in which users search for and retrieve case filings was not part of this redesign.) Legal blogger Bob Ambrogi outlines the changes, which include improved navigation, new accessibility tools, and a mobile-friendly design. The site also provides easy access to PACER's fees and billing information. PACER requires account-holders to have a payment method on file, although users are not charged unless they accrue $30.00 of charges (at a cost of $0.10 per page) during a billing quarter.

Members of the Law School community likely use Bloomberg Law as an alternative to PACER, as their Litigation Intelligence Center has long provided law schools with subsidized access to PACER materials, as well as to selected state court docket filings. Recently, Bloomberg announced a change to law school docket access that limits educational account usage and provides warnings for excessive docket access (with the possibility of suspension, in the event of prohibited uses like automated data-scraping). Under the new system, there will be caps on incurring docket charges for both individual users and the institutional subscriber. Heavy docket users may receive separate communications from administrators to discuss the most efficient and cost-effective ways to receive docket information. (Viewing dockets or documents already available to "View" in Bloomberg does not incur costs; these new limits are related to tasks like setting up alerts, updating dockets, and downloading documents that are not yet available in "View" mode within Bloomberg Law.)

With both PACER and Bloomberg Law now leaving users a bit more cost-conscious, what should the average researcher in search of a court filing do? It's certainly a good idea to look for free access to the needed documents.

• One approach that often works is to check the court's own website. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court provides free access to case filings and dockets. State access will vary, but some states do provide free public access to court dockets and case filings, such as the New York State Unified Courts System's eCourts site.
• Another effective search technique is to use free docket access tools. Justia Dockets provides access to freely available PACER materials (including documents tagged as opinions and orders) for U.S. District Courts and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal. The Free Law Project's RECAP search provides additional PACER documents courtesy of the RECAP browser extension.

For help with locating court filings from a state or federal case, check out the above resources or Ask a Librarian.