Potential Future Standards
Courts
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Current Status | No Progress |
| Potential Implementing Agencies | Local, State and Federal Court Systems |
| Potential Founding/Sponsoring Organizations | American Civil Liberties Union |
Analysis -- Future Potential and Adoption
Councils and administrative divisions in local government have received a great deal of attention for their open data efforts but the local judicial organizations have not. Open standards for court dockets, decisions, schedules and other judicial documents would greatly benefit the availability and usability of this material. Often, the data is published in PDF and other non-structured formats. Another significant impediment is the degree to which official court documents are processed and published by commercial firms and are only available through a paid subscription. Publishing in a machine readable and standardized formats that are openly available to the public would greatly increase the use within a jurisdiction and compare court records across regional areas.