Court Transparency

Abstract:     
Over the past decade, technology has transformed the federal courts. The federal courts moved from paper to electronic filing, resolved daunting privacy problems, and made their files available on PACER - thereby becoming the world's most transparent court system. Now they have already embarked on what may be a second, equally important transformation - the use of relational forms from which court data can be extracted automatically. This Article describes the technology and seeks to project and evaluate the effects of that second transformation.

If it occurs, the second transformation would create millions of windows into the courts at virtually no cost to the government. All relevant aspects of the courts' decision making would be revealed to policymakers, litigants, and the public, in forms they could readily comprehend. All would be able to see who wins what and how often. That would give policy makers the feedback necessary to fine tune the system, lawyers the ability to predict the outcomes of their cases, and the public the ability to see what courts actually do. Members of the public could also see whether the precautions they take for supposed legal reasons are the right ones.

Opponents argue that court record transparency (1) will expose parties and witnesses to the risk of identify theft and other harms, (2) will invade privacy by making previously difficult-to-obtain public record information about individuals readily available, and (3) will pressure judges in ways that deprive them of judicial independence. The Article argues that none of those objections is well-founded.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 73

Keywords: transparency, courts, privacy, regression, electronic, bankruptcy, prediction, legal documents, pdf, data-enabled forms, federal courts, pacer, relational data

JEL Classification: K41

Accepted Paper Series