AALL Leadership on Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age

State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources

Are government-hosted legal resources on the Web official and capable of being considered authentic? The groundbreaking State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources, published by AALL in March 2007, reveals that a significant number of state online legal resources are considered to be official but that states have not yet implemented ready authentication by standard methods. States are increasingly moving to an online only environment for some of their core legal resources, which makes these findings particularly alarming.

State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources Full Report [PDF]

Introduction
Executive Summary
Findings
State Reports
Appendices

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Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age: AALL National Summit

To address the authentication issue, AALL convened a National Summit on Authentication of Digital Legal Information in Chicago on April 20-21, 2007. Approximately fifty delegates from the judiciary, the legal community, state governments, and interested organizations participated, along with AALL leaders. They discussed the findings of the Report and explored legal and technological solutions to ensure that state online legal resources are authenticated and trustworthy.

For an outline of various aspects of the authentication issue, see the agenda and presentations from the Summit which are provided below.

National Summit Agenda

• Print vs. Digital – Assumptions and Differences – Professor Robert Berring
  • "Losing the Law: a Call To Arms," 10 Green Bag 2d 279 (2007)


• Session One: AALL’s State-By-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources
  • State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources
  • Authentication of Online Legal Resources: Key Findings


• Session Two: The Technological Solutions for Best Practices
  • The Technological Solutions for Best Practices
  • U.S. Government Printing Office: FDsys Content Authentication
  • What Needs Authentication?


• Session Three: The Legal Solutions
  • The Legal Solutions


• Closing Remarks
• Authentication of Digital Legal Information—Where Do We Go From Here?

Photographs of Delegates at the National Summit

"AALL Reaches the Tipping Point in National Leadership on Digital Authentication," AALL Spectrum, July 2007, at 6.

Resources on the Challenges of Digital Authentication since the Summit

AALL is committed to working with other organizations to ensure the authentication and preservation of online legal resources. We are pleased with the increased state, national and international interest in seeking solutions as a result of AALL’s Authentication Report and National Summit.

Progress on Digital Authentication

• ARJD Statement of Principles: "Official" On-line Documents (Rev. May 2008)



• NCCUSL Study Committee to Investigate Online Authentication



• U.S. Government Printing Office
  • Authenticated Public and Private Laws
  • Authenticated Budget of the United States Government
  • Authenticated Federal Government Documents from the U.S. Government Printing Office [Brochure]


• Utah Provides Authentication of Administrative Rules Publications - Press Release

Articles

• ABA Legal Technology Resource Center – "State-Level Primary Legal Resources Online Trustworthy?"



• Assuring Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age
  • Part I – the Acts of Indiana and the Indiana Code, Res Gestae, June 2007, at 20.
  • Part II—the Indiana Register and the Indiana Administrative Code, Res Gestae, September 2007, at 33.


• Best Practices Exchange – "How Trustworthy Are State-Level Primary Legal Resources on the Web?"



• Can you rely on the Indiana Code?
  • Part I – Noncode sections, Res Gestae, May 2008, at 20.


• Free Government Information – "State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources"



• Indiana Law Blog – "Ind. Courts – Admissibility of Electronic Evidence – Is It Authentic?"



• "The Lack of Effort to Ensure Integrity and Trustworthiness of Online Legal Information and Documents", The Judges’ Journal, Summer 2007, Vol.46 Num.3.



• Law Librarians’ Society of the District of Columbia – "AALL’s Authentication Summit," Law Library Lights, Summer 2007, at 26.



• "Losing the Law: a Call To Arms," 10 Green Bag 2d 279 (2007)



• "Paper Is Not a Drag," 11 Green Bag 2d 12 (2007)



• WisBlawg – From the UWLaw Library – "How Trustworthy Are State-Level Primary Legal Resources on the Web? Not Very, Says AALL Report"

For further information, please contact:

Mary Alice Baish
Director Government Relations Office
Georgetown University Law Library
111 G Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001-1417
202/662-9200
baish@law.georgetown.edu