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The Goodson Law Library research guide to Court Records & Briefs has recently been updated. In addition to corrected web links and updated guidance to free and premium resources like PACER and Bloomberg Law dockets searching, the guide includes a number of new records and briefs compilations that were added since the last update. Some highlights include: The Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1891-1980 features selected records and briefs from the U.S. Courts of Appeals dating from the 1890s to 1980. Drawn from a number of source libraries (including the National Archives, the New York City Bar Library, and the University of Iowa), featured cases cover a wide range of subject matter. The database is searchable by case name, citation, and keyword, and a "Topic Finder" feature is also available. LLMC Digital has expanded its records and briefs offerings since the last guide update. Its Records and Briefs search tab (avai...

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 S...

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear arguments in the ongoing litigation about the cost of PACER, the U.S. government's repository of federal court filings. PACER , or Public Access to Court Electronic Records, operates behind a paywall of $0.10 per page for searches and document retrieval. Charges are capped at $3.00 per document, and individual users are not billed unless they incur more than $15.00 in charges during a billing quarter. While the costs of PACER were designed to support the system’s infrastructure, critics have noted that PACER's annual income (more than $145 million) far exceeds the actual operating costs. As The New York Times reported over the weekend , several consumer groups have filed suit over PACER costs. The complaint highlighted practices of overcharging or double-charging individual users, and also challenged the judiciary's practice of using excess PACER income for costs unrelated to the maintenance of the court...

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit made headlines for using emoji in a published opinion. While they are not the first U.S. court to discuss or reference emoji, many commentators assert that Emerson v. Dart is the first time that emoji images have been embedded in the text of the opinion itself rather than described verbally. It also marks the judicial debut of the "poop emoji," a cartoonish depiction of a pile of excrement. Emerson v. Dart involved a Title VII retaliation claim brought by a female corrections officer. During the course of the litigation, the plaintiff was sanctioned for making a threatening Facebook post to a group of fellow correctional employees: To my fellow officers! DON’T GET IN A FIGHT THAT IS NOT, I REPEAT THAT IS NOT YOURS. I’VE JUST RECEIVED THE NAMES OF SOME PEOPLE THAT THE COUNTY IS ATTEMPTING TO USE AS WITNESSES, (1) IS A SGT, (2) OFFICERS, (1) OPR INVESTIGATOR, on the job 18mths, this fight is from 2009 & I’...

Our research guide to Court Records and Briefs has just been updated with some new resources. What's changed over the last year? Increased access to oral argument recordings : Effective April 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit joined the majority of federal appellate courts in providing audio recordings of oral arguments on its website. As Law360 noted in December , this change leaves the 10th Circuit as the lone holdout of federal appellate courts which do not provide some free access to audio. In addition, the research guide now includes a link to the Free Law Project's Court Listener Oral Argument Audio , which allows users to search more than 20,000 federal and state oral argument recordings by case name, keyword, docket number, and/or judge. A new source for U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs : A link to the ProQuest Supreme Court Insight database was added to the section on compiled U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs. Although the database is...

Over the holiday weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spent 12 minutes of an hour-long speech in San Diego criticizing a sitting federal judge. Gonzalo Curiel ( biography ) of the Southern District of California is presiding over a fraud lawsuit against the candidate's now-defunct Trump University, filed in 2010 and scheduled for trial in late November. The Wall Street Journal published excerpts of Trump's speech , which is also available at C-SPAN in video and full transcript : "I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel […] He is not doing the right thing. [...] The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he's given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative. […] I'm telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is...

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...

This week, the blogosphere was buzzing with gossip about a foul-mouthed deposition given by pop star Lady Gaga. Although the entertainer ' s former personal assistant filed the labor lawsuit in question way back in December 2011, excerpts of the August 2012 deposition didn't surface until last week. The NY Post was the first to publish highlights of the six-hour interview, in which Lady Gaga blasted her ex-employee as an incompetent freeloader, cursed repeatedly at plaintiff's counsel, and insisted on preserving all of her uncensored thoughts for the record: "[I]f you're going to ask me questions for the next five hours, I am going to tell you exactly what [expletive] happened, so that the judge can read on this transcript exactly what's going on." The ABA Journal and Above the Law spread the salacious story further. But as is common practice within the media, other news outlets quoted the explosive Post excerpts without providing much additional info...

As the trial of John Edwards drags into its ninth day of jury deliberations, you might wonder what is taking so long. The former U.S. Senator and 2004 vice-presidential candidate was indicted in 2011 for violating federal campaign finance laws in order to conceal his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Yesterday, the News & Observer reported that the members of the jury "have been behind closed doors for twice as long as it took the defense to present its side of the case." A note from one juror prompted several closed-door sessions between U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles and the attorneys on each side of the case. In addition, the four alternate jurors (who have not participated in the deliberations thus far) were allowed to return to their daily lives rather than spend more time waiting at the courthouse, although they remain “on call” if any of the twelve regular jurors are dismissed, and are st...

Reference Librarian Kelly Leong highlights changes to PACER’s fee structure, and some alternatives for federal court docket searching. Effective April 1 (no fooling), PACER ’s page-view charge has increased to 10 cents, from 8 cents. This is the first time the fee for access to the federal courts’ docket information and filings has increased since 2005. The fees, in general, fund the costs of operating PACER and the increase will be used for maintenance and improving access, according to a statement published by PACER on September 13, 2011. From the statement issued by the Judicial Conference (the judicial body which oversees PACER), it does not appear that the current individual document cap of $2.40 will be raised. The user billing exemption has also been raised from $10 to $15 per quarter, meaning that if you are a casual user of PACER, this rise in charges should not affect your use or bottom-line. However, threats of higher bills remind us that there are other resources availa...

Over the weekend, the news media reported on a sushi-related discrimination lawsuit currently working its way through the Los Angeles County trial court system. David Martin visited a southern California sushi house and ordered its all-you-can-eat buffet for $28. But when restaurateur Jay Oh noticed leftover nuggets of rice on Martin’s plate, he argued that Martin should be charged the higher price for sashimi (raw fish without rice) than for nigiri (raw fish served atop a hand-packed wad of vinegared rice). Since sashimi is traditionally priced higher than nigiri, the restaurant’s policy for the sushi buffet requires diners to clean their plates completely in order to receive the next round of food. Martin responded with a lawsuit, alleging that A Ca-Shi Restaurant’s requirement that patrons consume the sushi rice along with the fish in order to qualify for the all-you-can-eat price constituted discrimination against diabetics like him. Though several news sources picked up this stor...

Last week, the Judicial Conference of the United States approved several steps to improve PACER , the federal courts’ system for P ublic A ccess to C ourt E lectronic R ecords. Among the highlights: While congressionally-mandated user fees will remain stable at $0.08 per page (capped at $2.40 per document), PACER users will not receive a bill until they accrue $10 in charges during a quarterly billing cycle (an upgrade from the previous fee waiver of $10 per year). With approval from the presiding judge, digital audio files of hearings may be downloadable through PACER for $2.40 each. Previously, these recordings had to be obtained through the individual court clerk’s office for $26.00. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts also recently announced an upgrade to PACER, with the debut of the new PACER Case Locator . This search service allows users to identify which court’s PACER database contains materials from a specified case, as well as create customized displays of federal...

When you need to locate a federal court filing, at least from 1996-present, the odds are good that you will find it on PACER (see Reference Desk for access). Law students, faculty and staff may also have some luck with locating federal dockets, briefs and other court documents on LexisNexis and Westlaw . State court records and briefs, however, are another matter entirely. PACER covers only federal courts, and there is no comparable database which attempts to include documents from all state courts. LexisNexis and Westlaw’s coverage of state dockets varies widely: some states include only civil filings, some states are not included at all, and the available years are unpredictable. Many law libraries, including Duke’s, do maintain print or microform collections of state court records and briefs, but their coverage varies widely as well. Thankfully, locating records and briefs from New York and California state courts is about to get easier. LLMC Digital recently announced two digit...

Although law school casebooks tend to focus on the judge’s written opinion, court cases actually generate a large amount of other documents, such as: complaints, briefs, depositions, oral argument transcripts, jury verdicts, settlement agreements, etc. These materials comprise the record of the case. Legal researchers might wish to consult a case’s record or briefs for a variety of reasons: to review which legal arguments persuaded (or did not persuade) the judge, to learn more about the factual or procedural background of a case, and to gauge what kind of verdict or damages might be awarded in a similar situation. Unfortunately, there is little consistency in the publication of court records and briefs, which may be available in a variety of print, electronic and microform sources. To aid these researchers, reference librarian Jennifer L. Behrens has created a new Goodson Law Library Research Guide to Court Records and Briefs ( http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/records_brie...

As you may already know, the Law Library maintains a username and password for PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records, http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/ ), which is available for use by current members of the Law School community. PACER provides online access to U.S. District, Bankruptcy, and Appellate court records and docket information, with many documents available in PDF. The major disadvantage of PACER is its pay-per-view charging system, which costs searchers $0.08/page. This can add up quickly! One solution is to first review the free docket information available on Justia's Federal District Court Filings & Dockets page ( http://dockets.justia.com/ ) to identify exactly which documents are desired before logging in to PACER. In addition, a good amount of PACER's content is available to Law School users on Westlaw ; available document PDFs will be linked at the bottom of the associated case. However, a recent initiative by public.resource.org o...

The Judicial Conference of the United States recently announced plans to make transcripts of federal district and bankruptcy court proceedings available online through the Judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records ( PACER ) system. Under the new policy, transcripts created by court reporters or transcribers will be available for inspection and copying in a clerk of court’s office and for download from PACER 90 days after they are delivered to the clerk. (During the initial 90-day period, transcripts will be available at the clerk’s office for inspection only, or may be purchased from the court reporter or transcriber.) Duke Law students, faculty and staff can request access to PACER from the Reference Desk . Because PACER charges under a pay-per-view system, library staff may require you to visit the library in person for an orientation to the service.