First things first, Gentle Reader, let me manage your expectations and let you know that I do not plan on blogging every day. It’s just that now, at the beginning of my experience when my mind is going in several different directions at once at 1000 miles per hour that I feel the need to write my thoughts down in an attempt to bring some order to the chaos. ANYWAY.
I’m about 20% through my code data collection process and one surprise is the difficultly I am having getting confirmation of the “official state code.” Sometimes it’s spelled out, like in Colorado or Delaware. Sometimes you get a curveball, like the certified copies in Kentucky. And sometimes, like in Arizona, you really have no indication on the government websites and you have to rely upon a library research guide to tell you the name/publisher of the official version. And I still can’t decide if the name of the Alabama code is “Code of Alabama” or “Code of Alabama 1975.” I’m probably over thinking this, but I just really want some thing to tell me “This is the official code and this is it’s official name.”
I’m making note of the official version because often times (I’m assuming and will confirm when I get to the court data collection) that’s the version you have to cite to in court proceedings. And it’s all well and good to put a version of the code online for free, but if you (or a library) still need to shell out several hundred dollars for the usuable version, well…fuck that. Not to put too fine a point on it. I mean, is it just me? I realize that I am a lawyer and a librarian therefore I am big on RULES. I think if you’re going to make a RULE that someone needs to use certain product to be able to have full participation as a citizen in this country, especially when said product is full of edicts of government, well then by God it should be free to access.
Authentication is a whole other monster, one that I really wasn’t planning on getting into, except now I’ve found that at least California and Delaware are putting authenticated versions of their state codes online. Basically, authentication means that you’re guaranteed that the version you are reading is as it was published by the government. I find the idea of an authenticated version of law very appealing, but increasingly less necessary. Mainly because we’ve gone 200+ years without authenticated versions of law and just because things are now born digital why bother completely changing things up? Interestingly, of the two authenticated codes that I’ve found, California doesn’t have an official code and Delaware makes their online version official. I’m wondering if any jurisdiction has competing official and authentic versions? I guess I’ll find out.