State of Public Records Access in the State of Indiana
Marcia Oddi over at the Indiana Law Blog always has good continuing coverage of how the state of Indiana makes its laws, court decisions and other “public records” available to the public. This is an area that has undergone significant change with the rise of the internet. Today, she gives a preview of one of her Res Gestae articles, this time on the sorry state of the state provided online version of the Indiana Code, a version which is so out of date, inaccurate, and lacking of basic features, that we attorneys have no option but to purchase access to the code from Lexis or Westlaw (Wait, that couldn’t be the point, could it?).
Read Marcia’s coverage: How much can you rely on what is in the Indiana Code? Marcia already warned us off of the online Indiana Administrative Code.
On the same general subject, Marcia also posted an update on the Indiana Supreme Court’s effort to provide “free”* online access to trial court case information, called JTAC.
[* "free" meaning that hundreds of millions of additional dollars will be charged to those who file cases in trial courts so that online access can be provided without charge]
Marcia’s recent coverage of the effectiveness of this provision of online records can be found here: Update on Supreme Court’s case management system plans.
Indiana is far from alone in its struggles with providing electronic access to public records. All states have confronted the issue to some degree, creating a patchwork quilt of public access laws across the country. One state, Oregon, has even gone to the extremes in claiming that its laws are copyrighted and baring secondary publication:
The State of Oregon is sending out cease and desist letters to sites like Justia and Public.Resource.Org that have been posting copies of Oregon laws, known as the Oregon Revised Statutes.
Carl Malamud via boingboing.
UPDATE: Marcia contacted me with a clarification on her new article, which in my mind makes the issue even more distressing:
This new article looks at problems that transcend the medium used for publication – these new, insofar as these discussions are concerned, problems exist with both the online and the printed versions of the Indiana Code.
In other words, no matter whether you look at an online or printed version of the Indiana Code, there is stuff that you need to know that was in an Enrolled Act, but is not in the Indiana Code. Part I looks at simple sections that are left out, In Part 1 I give an example - the law requiring defibrillators in health clubs - was passed in 2007 and has been in the Code as the law since July 1, 2007. However, a provision that is not in the Code provides that the defibrillator requirement is not applicable until July 1, 2008.
