Law Schools Launch New Case Law Directory, Free to Public

Law schools at Columbia and the University of Colorado teamed up to launch the first public, comprehensive case law database at AltLaw.org three weeks ago.

AltLaw provides the first free, full-text searchable database of Supreme Court and Federal Appellate case reports for the general public. It allows anyone with internet access to view federal case laws. It also supplies briefs for the lawyer on the go.

Timothy Wu, Columbia Law School professor and Director of the Program on Law and Technology, spearheaded the project. “I created AltLaw because I’m really lazy. I use Google all of the time, and I like to look at cases really quickly,” he said. “It should be easier for the public to get at public domain case law.”

AltLaw currently contains nearly 170,000 decisions dating back to the early 1990s. The most recent case to date, AttorneyFirst LLC v. Ascension, was decided on Sept. 20, 2007.

Previously, to get full access to up-to-date case reports, legal scholars would need a subscription to an online database, which can cost hundreds of dollars per hour. Answers to obscure questions that involve gray-area law, such as whether cats have First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, are easily accessible on the Web site.

AltLaw.org documents that no, cats do not have freedom of speech. The case, Miles v. City Council of Augusta, Ga., also known as the case of Blackie the Talking Cat, involved a couple asking for contributions to get their cat to talk. Yes, the cat allegedly was able to construct a sentence, most notably, “I love you.” The Miles’ were charged with violating the city’s occupation tax ordinance, specifically making money off Blackie sans business license.

The Miles’ brought the issue to court and argued their case. The court held that no such First Amendment right protection applies to cats.

The cases come directly from the courts, which have Web sites that many find disorganized and hard to find. AltLaw.org does the grunt work.

The site was designed with lawyers, journalists, and legal scholars in mind. Wu explained that AltLaw levels the playing field in the legal realm. Defendants, he said, should have the same access to competent council under the Sixth Amendment; rich lawyers shouldn’t be the only people privy to recent precedent and case law. “That’s actually a major problem in the legal system,” Wu said.

Wu describes the site as an alternative database. The domain AltLaw.org stems from the database’s official name, Alternative Distribution Search Engine for Law.
AltLaw’s aim is to make information more widely available for less money. “It’s like Wikipedia. A free encyclopedia,” Wu said.

The site is still in its “beta version,” which means that it’s still under heavy development. Wu expects that it will be fully functional in another six months.

Sarah Cohler can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com