Our latest update to Spindle Law includes a number of small enhancements and bug fixes.   To highlight two of them:

As David already described, we don’t collect cases and other legal documents.   Instead, where possible, we provide links to where you can read the primary material on other sites.  Until this update, we only provided links to cases.  We now provide links to source material for all the different types of authorities that we currently support.  In addition to cases, this includes the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and Federal Rules of Evidence and of Procedure.  As with cases, we provide links to both free and pay sites.   For the links to the free sites for USC and CFR we use the handy citer tool from Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, which will find the material either on LII’s own site or a government site.   For the rules of evidence and procedure, we link directly to the material on LII.

When editing branches we’ve had a feature for quite some time that allows you to edit multiple branches at the same time by using the “tree view” link.  This allows you to open the tree as much as you want, so that you can easily move branches around, create new branches, and edit existing branches.    This feature has been enhanced with a new “save & continue” button.  This will allow you to save all the work that you have done so far while continuing to edit branches.  When you’re done editing, the “save” button will save all your work and end your edit session as before.  The “cancel” button will also end your edit session but will undo all your work since your last “save & continue”.

Spindle Law now supports authorities from pending and unreported cases. With these changes, contributors can cite authorities to slip opinions and electronic databases. If the case is subsequently published, the reporter citation can be added and Spindle Law will handle the proper BlueBook formatting.  At a minimum, the case title, court, and full date of the opinion are required when entering a pending or unreported case. If the case is pending, the reporter and volume can be entered if known. Although optional, it is encouraged to include a citation to the slip opinion or an electronic database, or even better, both. To do so, just click on the “more…” button and then click on the appropriate button.

This has been a major step in increasing the scope of authorities that Spindle Law supports. As always, we welcome your feedback on this or any other feature.

We’ve been fans of AltLaw, the project to provide free access to cases by Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School, and have followed its progress closely.   Understandably, with the release of Google Scholar, Stuart Sierra, an original developer and the maintainer of AltLaw, recently announced that  ”Project AltLaw (Phase One)” is complete and the website will be closing shop in its current form in the near future.    We look forward to Phase Two.   As David already described, we are not about collecting and distributing case documents and moreover we are supportive of efforts to make case documents more accessible.   As Google has recognized, AltLaw, along with other organizations, deserves a lot of credit for pioneering open access to case law.

On Spindle Law, when you click on a case name,  we provide links for reading the case on other services, both free and paid, including AltLaw, PLOL, WestLaw, LexisNexis, and Fastcase.   As of this week, we have replaced the AltLaw option with Google Scholar.