Internet Researcher: State Appellate Court Opinions

John E. Christensen(*)

73 Journal of the Kansas Bar Association 22 (March 2004)

Copyright © 2004 by Kansas Bar Association; John E. Christensen

I. Introduction

Until the advent of the Internet, attorney options for computer-assisted case law research were essentially limited to Lexis, Westlaw, and CD-ROM products offered for individual states or regions. Today's researchers have a variety of viable choices. This article highlights electronic resources associated with researching Kansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals opinions, as well as free and low-cost options for researching appellate court opinions in all states.

II. Kansas

Kansas attorneys are fortunate to have convenient access to recent decisions of the Kansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals at a free website (www.kscourts.org/kscases), maintained as a cooperative project by the Courts and the Washburn University School of Law Library and the University of Kansas School of Law Library. Coverage begins October 25, 1996.

As noted on the Web page, "Opinions are normally added to this site within one hour of the time (usually 9:30 a.m. each Friday) they are transmitted by the Reporter's Office to the WebMasters." Access to opinions is provided several ways:

1. Keyword search,
2. Alphabetical list by case name,
3. Numerical list by docket number, and
4. List by date opinions are released.

Attorneys and other researchers are cautioned about the use of the slip opinions:

NOTE: Slip opinions are subject to motions for rehearing and petitions for review prior to issuance of the mandate. Before citing a slip opinion, determine that the opinion has become final. Slip opinions also are subject to modification orders and editorial corrections prior to publication in the official reporters. Consult the bound volumes of Kansas Reports and Kansas Court of Appeals Reports for the final, official texts of the opinions of the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Court of Appeals. Attorneys are requested to call prompt attention to typographical or other formal errors; please notify Richard Ross, Reporter of Decisions, Kansas Judicial Center, 301 West 10th, Topeka, KS 66612-1598; e-mail, rossr@kscourts.org; phone, 785-296-3214.

A link is provided to the Kansas Appellate Courts Case Inquiry System, which provides detailed docket information in real time for cases submitted since January 1990. Public access to this system began in May 2002. A search for a specific case may be by docket number or by case name. A docket number is comprised of three sections: a two-digit year number, a five-digit docket number, and an alphabetic court designator (S for Supreme Court and A for Court of Appeals). In making a query, just use the five-digit docket number, not the year or court designation. In making name queries, remember that the system uses an "exact match" protocol (e.g., "Pat" will not retrieve "Patrick"). Many users do not realize that the system can provide the names and contact information for the attorneys in the case. For questions or assistance in using the system, contact the Appellate Clerk's Office at (785) 296-3229, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A link is also provided to the brief summaries and press releases for selected Supreme Court cases prepared by the Office of Judicial Administration.

Kansas was one of the first states to make its appellate court slip opinions available on the Web and has been recognized nationally for the quality of the website. In 2001, The American Association of Law Libraries' Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee identified (and continues to note) the "best practices" exemplified by this site. In addition to the published appellate opinions, the Kansas Judicial Branch Web page (www.kscourts.org) contains links to many helpful resources related to offices associated with the court system in Kansas.

A new e-mail alert service for Kansas Supreme Court and Kansas Court of Appeals decisions has been initiated by the Kansas Bar Association. Every Monday, except holidays, KBA members are sent an e-mail itemizing the decisions handed down the previous Friday for both appellate courts with a one-line description of each case and its disposition. From the e-mail, members may click on a link and be taken to a password-protected site where digests of the cases for that week are stored. The initial screen has a listing of the cases decided. Each entry on the list contains the name of the case, type of action (civil or criminal), subject, docket number, appellate court (Supreme Court or Court of Appeals), name of the lower court, and disposition. By clicking on the name of the case of interest, one is taken to a summary (digest) that contains the identifying information just noted and a summary of the facts, statement of the issue(s), holding, and statutory reference(s). From the digest one may click to see the full text of the opinions maintained at www.kscourts.org. KBA members who are not receiving this service and wish to do so may contact Deana Mead, manager of membership services, at the KBA office at (785) 234-5696 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday or e-mail dmead@ksbar.org.

At present, the briefs of cases submitted to the Kansas Supreme Court or Court of Appeals are not available on the Web. However, substantial collections of Kansas appellate briefs are available in hard copy at the Kansas Supreme Court Law Library and Washburn University School of Law Library. Both libraries circulate briefs, and the Kansas Supreme Court Law Library will photocopy a brief. (The University of Kansas Law Library's collection of briefs runs through 1999.) The Kansas State Historical Society Library has custody of older case files associated with appellate cases and also maintains a collection of briefs.

Researchers who prefer to work with hard copy may subscribe to advanced sheets as well as bound volumes of the Kansas Reports, Court of Appeals Reports, and Rules Adopted by the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas Annotated by contacting the Kansas Supreme Court Law Library at (785) 296-3257.

III. All States

Appellate courts in nearly all states now make their slip opinions available on the Web. The table on page 25 provides the name of each state, the associated URL of the appellate court(s), and year of earliest available opinion. The table also shows dates of coverage for two of the major "bare bones" Web-based legal research services, LOISLaw and Versus Law. Coverages for Lexis and Westlaw are not shown because both services offer complete historical collections. National Law Library collections begin with 1950 and Quicklaw America begins with 1930.

Two popular websites, LexisONE and FindLaw, offer free access to state appellate opinions issued since about 1998.

LexisONE (www.lexisone.com) provides free access to federal and state court appellate opinions since January 1, 1998, as well as free access to U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1790. The service was launched in July 2000 by LexisNexis to attract small firm practitioners. In addition to recent opinions, the site has a forms library and a directory of 20,000 legal websites and is an access point to the comprehensive LexisNexis service priced by the day, week, or month. Registration is required, but use of the service is free. A listing of jurisdictions, courts, and documents excluded is provided.

It is possible to search for a case by citation, choose a particular state (or all states), or specify a particular federal court (or a combined federal courts file). One may narrow the search by limiting to a particular time frame or by specifying parties, judges, or counsel.

FindLaw (www.findlaw.com/casecode) provides free access to approximately the most recent five years of state appellate court opinions, links to opinion sources from the respective appellate courts of each state, and links to Westlaw databases for each state. In 2000, West Publishing acquired FindLaw to help it market to the small firm practitioner.

The state appellate court opinions at FindLaw are arranged by year and by docket number within the year. A capability for searching by title or docket number for an opinion is provided for each state. FindLaw is one of the most popular starting points for legal research on the Web.

WashLaw WEB (washlaw.edu) maintains an extensive collection of links to research resources available for each state, including links to the websites for the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for each state. In addition, if available, there is an "Opinion Search" feature that links to the court, association, or other entity, which provides free keyword search capabilities of appellate opinions for a particular state. A "Scope" note indicates years of coverage (usually less than the most recent five years) and provides a contact for additional information. From the WashLaw home page, click on a state and scroll down until you find the court links of interest.

IV. Fee Based

Appellate court opinions for all states are also available on the Web from commercial vendors of computer-assisted legal research systems. In recent years, both Lexis (www.lexis-nexis.com) and Westlaw (www.westlaw.com) have extended retrospective coverage of their libraries and now have comparable and relatively comprehensive libraries of appellate decisions for each state. Precise coverage is detailed in the online directories available at their respective websites.

Some of the newer and less expensive computer-assisted legal research services provide coverage of state appellate court decisions that is more extensive than the free sites but less than that of Lexis or Westlaw. Many

researchers will find these ranges adequate in many instances.

Loislaw (www.loislaw.com), which has been marketed in Kansas for a number of years, was acquired by Aspen Publishers in 2001. Aspen is using Loislaw as a platform for providing integrated access to its treatises and other publications, as well as primary law in subject libraries that coincide with practice areas. Kansas Supreme Court opinions are available from 1949. Opinions of the modern Kansas Court of Appeals are available from inception (1977). The beginning year of coverage of other states' appellate opinions is indicated in the table on page 25.

VersusLaw (www.versuslaw.com) pioneered the effort to offer lawyers a low-cost, Web-based service that provided an alternative to Lexis or Westlaw for access to extensive collections of case law from all 50 states, all federal circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Coverage for state appellate opinions begins in many jurisdictions with 1930. The table on page 25 gives the current state-by-state coverage. Members of the Missouri Bar and the American Trial Lawyers Association are eligible for even deeper cost discounts by virtue of agreements negotiated with the vendor. Last October, Legal Technology News named VersusLaw one of the 10 best legal websites of the decade. In March 2000 the vendor began developing TribalCourts.com (www.tribalcourts.com), now the world's largest collection of Native American opinions available in electronic format.

National Law Library (www.itislaw.com) provides appellate court decisions for all 50 states from 1950 to date. It is possible to subscribe monthly for one or more states or for all states or one may pay by the search. National Law Library is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITIS Inc., which also owns Brief Reporter LLC and Litidex Inc.

Quicklaw America (www.quicklawame rica.com) provides appellate court decisions for all 50 states from 1930 to date. LexisNexis acquired Quicklaw in 2002, presumably to enhance Canadian content in its LexisNexis service.

Fastcase (www.fastcase.com) licenses its state appellate opinions from ITIS Inc. (essentially 1950 to date) but makes available a user interface that provides enhanced search, sort, and display capabilities. Monthly and annual subscriptions are available.

CaseClerk (www.caseclerk.com) obtains its state appellate opinions under license from Versuslaw (see table on page 25 for coverage). Annual, monthly, and daily subscription plans are available.

TheLaw.Net (www.thelaw.net) provides appellate court decisions for all 50 states by licensing the opinions from Versuslaw (see table on page 25 for coverage). In addition, the user interface provides convenient access to the appellate opinions available publicly on the Web. The Virtual Assistant service, free to subscribers, will provide a copy of any known federal or state judicial opinion that is not available in TheLaw.Net database.

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