Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
The Special Committee on Review of Records Access of Circuit Court Documents met this past Thursday, Nov. 4th. The video and audio of this meeting are available via Wisconsin Eye. Memorandum, reports and documents mentioned during the meeting are available on the Special Committee’s page on the Legislative Council’s website. The Chair, Rep. Kelda Helen …
3 Geeks and a Law Blog reports on two opinions from NY regarding access to both public and private Facebook posts. Bottom line in New York (and possibly every place else in the United States): Expect everything you post on Facebook or MySpace to be considered public information by the courts, and don’t expect that …
From the Wisconsin State Journal: President Barack Obama has again nominated Louis B. Butler Jr. to replace John Shabaz as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin, the White House announced Monday. See also the press release from the White House.
From 3 Geeks and a Law Blog: You have to admire the punishment that Judge Diane Druzinski handed down to a juror that updated her Facebook status to say that it was “gonna be fun to tell the defendant they’re GUILTY.” Apparently, Judge Druzinski doesn’t like it when a juror posts a verdict on a …
From Law Technology News via Law.com: On May 26, a federal court issued an opinion in a discovery dispute that applies outmoded federal electronic privacy laws from the 1980s to Facebook and MySpace. The ruling could permanently change the way “social networking” sites are viewed by businesses and those involved in litigation. The decision also …
From the latest InsideTrack: Litigants in Wisconsin’s appellate courts who cite unpublished court of appeals opinions soon must include copies of those opinions in appendices accompanying any brief, petition, or response in which the opinion is cited. The changes go in effect on Jan. 1, 2011. Read the full article for more.
From The New York Law Journal via Law.com: Last April, a judicial hearing officer relied on a woman’s “sworn testimony” from an appearance on “The People’s Court” to determine that the woman had not lived with her recently deceased mother and therefore did not have succession rights to her apartment. In an order released this …
Are government employees’ personal e-mails considered public records? No, according to an opinion by the Wisconsin Supreme Court last Friday. From Schill v. Wisconsin Rapids School District: In the present case, the court is asked to decide whether the contents of government employees’ personal e-mails (that is, e-mails not related to government business) should be …
On Wednesday, President Obama nominated UW–Madison Law School professor Victoria Nourse to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. From the White House Press Release: Professor Victoria F. Nourse is the Burrus-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where she joined the faculty in 1993. A prolific scholar with wide-ranging …
Less than 18% of the total income generated by PACER fees relate directly to the cost of running the service – that’s according to a new working paper by Steve Schultze, Associate Director of the Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. Where does the rest go? Read the paper to find out. From the abstract: …