Law Document Transparency Project Defines Its Terms

"A national movement to compile publicly available legal documents and resources on free and easily accessible websites is moving forward after months of discussion about the project's goals. The 33 leaders behind Law.gov last week laid out their vision for better access to legal information with the release a list of 10 core principles. The principles are the culmination of discussions at 15 workshops held around the country between February and June. An estimated 650 law librarians, law professors, government officials, judges, and legal information industry representatives attended, according to Carl Malamud, a leading force behind Law.gov and president of Public.resource.org, which lobbies for transparency in government....The 10 principles range from broad to fairly specific. For example, the first principle is that primary legal materials should be free, while the last is that governmental bodies should be trained in the latest best practices in making legal materials available to the public...."