The Office of Information Law and Policy is updating the Freedom of Information Case List. The new list will include approximately 300 FOIA cases which have been decided since the March, 1979, Case List was published. Also, all cases in that edition have been cite checked and Shepardized for accuracy.
Checking the accuracy of that number of cases is both amusing and frustrating, reports Cheri McCracken, the attorney updating the case list.
"First, I experienced disbelief that I was Shepardizing over 900 cases; then, despair, when I discovered that Juris, a computer legal research system, cannot easily search and Shepardize now because of the musical case name syndrome where the name of the case changes." FOIA case names may change when the agency head changes, when the case is appealed and when the agency or agency name changes.
OILP plans to have the Case List published by the end of July. Copies of it will be available through the Government Printing Office. Agencies may wish to ride the printing requisition to obtain the FOI Case List in quantity. Agencies who wish to so should call Patricia Binninger at OILP (633-2674) for details.
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