One of the most difficult parts of the Internet for courts is the lack of control over business decisions. Technology seems to have decided that case law and court rules will end up freely available online, despite various efforts early on to charge subscription fees for the information, illustrating an aspect of the economics of electronic commerce that applies to private business as well as government. Court dockets are the most recent example of this phenomenon. Dockets include both the calendar of upcoming cases and the historical database of cases decided in the court. In 1998, court dockets are fast migrating to the Web.
Access is free.
Still, courts continue to believe that fiscal responsibility requires some sort of subscription fee. Instead, courts should use the experience of publishing dockets to learn about adding value to databases as preparation for generating far more revenue through related e-commerce applications. Online dockets in federal and state courts are not created equal, and an examination of the different approaches the courts are using will help lawyers understand how to use them. The U.S. Supreme Court docket is available in three locations. The federal courts do not currently place the information on the Web.