The Goodson Blogson

When Grammy and Academy Award-winning musician Prince (née Prince Rogers Nelson) passed away last week at age 57, his fans around the world were shocked at the sudden loss. This week, it was alleged in court filings that the famed entertainer died without preparing a will – this time, sending a shock through the legal community. Prince's estate is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions , including his lucrative songwriting catalog (which Prince controlled after decades of legal wrangling with record labels). Prince was unmarried and had no living parents or children (his only son, with ex-wife Mayte Garcia, died shortly after his 1996 birth). Tyka Nelson, Prince's sister, has petitioned a Minnesota court for control of the entertainer's estate. (Prince also has five half-siblings, which the ABA Journal notes are treated as full siblings under Minnesota probate law.) While it's surprising that Prince would die intestate after a career marked by legal battles over ...

On Thursday, three nonprofit groups filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint , which is available free from the Alliance for Justice website and the Internet Archive , alleges that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts charges excessive fees to access federal court filings on its PACER service (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and ABA Journal have helpful write-ups of the case background. As legal researchers know, PACER.gov is the official source for federal court filings, and is currently used in all federal jurisdictions except the U.S. Supreme Court (which announced in its 2014 Year-End Report of the Chief Justice that it is developing its own electronic alternative for filings). PACER requires individuals to register an account, along with a credit card for payment of any fees incurred above $15 in a quarterly billing period. Fees in PACER (for both searching and vi...

With Reunion Weekend fast approaching, the Goodson Law Library is proud to highlight Law School Alumni Authors. Level 3 of the library contains a special Alumni Authors collection ( view map ); works in this collection will have a Location note in the Duke University Libraries catalog . If you have a tip about an existing or upcoming alumni publication which is not yet featured in our collection, let the library know in our online Suggestion Box . The Goodson Law Library is also proud to sponsor an annual Alumni Author event, in observance of National Library Week. On Thursday, April 14, Jacinda Townsend (Class of '95) will discuss her acclaimed novel, Saint Monkey . This year's event is co-sponsored by the Black Law Students Association and the Women Law Students Association. Previous Alumni Author events can be found in the Duke Law video archive: 2015: Zephyr Teachout (Class of '99): Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens U...