State Dockets Research
Description: Please join us on Wednesday, May 10 at noon (central time) for our next program, which will explore what we as librarians need to know and what our users need to know about state dockets. Presenters and CALL members Clare Gaynor Willis and Shari Berkowitz Duff will focus on trial courts in Cook County and the collar counties. They will compare and contrast the tools available to law firms and law schools and talk about the ever-increasing number of vendors offering state dockets and court records. They will also talk about how to teach our users what they need to understand and how to manage their expectations. The program will discuss the quirks and difficulties of requesting dockets and court records from the courthouse, an option that is necessary when database coverage is not available. Participants can expect to come away with a lot of practical information and a better understanding of how their fellow librarians navigate the challenges of state docket research.
Presenters: Clare Gaynor Willis is the Research and Instructional Services Librarian and Coordinator of Educational Outreach for the Pritzker Legal Research Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She teaches upper level law students how to search for dockets and court records in her Advanced Legal Research course. Clare is also the co-author of a forthcoming article exploring what happened to defendants in famous U.S. Supreme Court criminal procedure cases. The article highlights how the difficulty of obtaining court records obscures the truth of what happened to those defendants.
Shari Berkowitz Duff is a Research Librarian at Jones Day. Shari has extensive experience searching and working with state courts across the country as part of her various research requests at Jones Day, and previously during her time at Reed Smith. She is the “go-to” team member for her Library colleagues and a key point of contact for several Partners, Associates, and Paralegals working on high-profile litigation nationwide when they have questions, if they need to know if something is possible to research and obtain easily, and to assist with coordinating aspects of complex research and on-going projects. Shari has also been a source of guidance and training for the Jones Day docket team on many occasions over the past 5 ½ years. Shari is also currently leading an internal Library Team Project with two other Librarians to put together a living document that provides detailed information on access, costs, coverage and what is available for courts in all 50 states not only through several of the major vendor platforms, but also via court websites.
When: Wednesday, May 10, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Where: At your desk via Zoom. Registrants will receive webinar details prior to the program
Please register here.
