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Comment by syzygetic | Hacker News Reader

Very interesting topic, hadn't ever considered the possibility that the availability of legal proceedings / documents might be something other than a taxpayer-subsidized venture. It sure seems like that's the appropriate source for funds to accomplish this.

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When I heard abut this the first time I also was surprised that this stuff is not available for free. In a country governed by laws it should be one of the most important things that the law is easily accessible to all people.

> one of the most important things that the law is easily accessible to all people

As rayiner points out [1], court filings are not case law. Decisions, the only component of a court's output that can properly be considered law, are generally freely and publicly available.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16230803

That's fine. I still think that if openness is a good thing then the legal system should be one of the first places. Everything should go into a central and open database.

> I still think that if openness is a good thing then the legal system should be one of the first places

And I would tend to agree with you. But make that argument, not something about the laws of the land being locked away. The “free law” pitch comes across as dishonest to anyone remotely familiar with the system.

I mean, they do already. The database is just the court records and you can go to the courthouse and access them. That's how its been for centuries.

I think it's time to take the records online.

Another reply claimed that it occurs that decisions are wrongly tagged and thus accidentally not available for free: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16231087

See "District Court Opinions that Remain Hidden Despite a Longstanding Congressional Mandate of Transparency – The Result of Judicial Autonomy and Systemic Indifference" by Peter Martin at Cornell. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3034399

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