Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
In a surprise announcement yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released new guidance that starting in 2026, any publications and supporting data resulting from federally funded research must be openly accessible on the day it’s published. Here’s more from Ars Technica: The US government is likely to be the world’s …
Thinking of filing a public records request but aren’t sure where to start? Wisconsin Watch has compiled a helpful primer. Here’s a selection: First, determine what you want to know and who has that record. The person in charge of keeping and managing these documents at an agency or department is known as the “custodian” …
The American Association of Law Libraries reports that academic librarians may now qualify for exemption from FOIA request fees as educational institution requestors. From the AALL Washington Update: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) accepted AALL’s recommendation that federal agencies should consider librarians at educational institutions, including academic law librarians, as eligible for fee …
We are currently facing an unprecedented time here in the law library, the law school, and the world. With the new COVID-19 virus and subsequent pandemic, we have been met with new fears, new challenges, and even new methods of learning (as we’ve all moved to video conferencing and distance learning). As doctors and healthcare …
Earlier this week, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the legality of fees charged by the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. The suit, NVLSP v. U.S., was brought by three national nonprofit organizations (the National Veterans Legal Services Program, the National …
The latest issue of the State Bar’s InsideTrack has an excellent article on the use and misuse of CCAP by employers to explore a job applicant’s criminal background. Employers, and the lawyers who advise them, must be prepared to use CCAP within the parameters of the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (WFEA). The WFEA provides, as …
By Eric Taylor, Evening & Weekend Reference Librarian Once the exclusive province of Congress, the CRS Reports are now available to everyone. Thoroughly researched and produced by the Congressional Research Service, the CRS Reports are nonpartisan briefing papers about current and emerging affairs of interest to members of Congress and their staffs. The core mission …
By Eric Taylor, Reference Librarian The Free Law Project recently announced the availability of PACER Docket Alerts on CourtListener.com. CourtListener is a free public access website tracking federal and state courts. The Docket Alert tool will send you an email anytime there is a new court filing in a case you are following in PACER. …
A recent article from Madison’s local newspaper, The Isthmus, outlines some significant cuts to the staff and services of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, particularly in the LRB research and library services department. For example, the article cites a reduction in the number of “plain language” reviews of laws or court cases from 27 in 2014 …
CCAP, or the Consolidated Court Automation Program, is the Wisconsin electronic circuit court case management system. Recently, several bills were introduced in the Wisconsin legislature regarding CCAP. Both of these bills, Assembly Bill 723 and Senate Bill 612, list what categories of information should be provided and searchable on CCAP, including: County where …