In October 2016 I announced preliminary results and findings from a survey of the status of online access to administrative decisions in the US. The formal paper resulting from this research project has just been made available in the latest issue of the Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary (NAALJ).
The paper demonstrates that access to administrative appeals suffers from the same barriers to access as judicial opinions, although at a more acute level. The reliance of many states on third-party commercial publishers for the provision of primary access is particularly problematic in the context of the current access to justice crisis, especially considering the potential for enhanced transparency provided by the Internet. The paper proposes that in order to improve the situation, central panels and agencies should systematically self-publish administrative appeal decisions on their own websites (which may require redaction) and put emphasis on making them available “openly”, which involves taking steps beyond the simple provision of physical access.
Note that this paper will be presented at both the 2017 NAALJ Annual Conference in New York, October 8-10, and at the Law via the Internet Conference 2017 in Newark, October 19-21.
It is recommended to cite the paper as:
Pierre-Paul Lemyre, State Administrative Decisions Census: Demonstrating the Need for More Openness, 37 J. Nat’l Ass’n Admin. L. Judiciary 35 (2017)
Available at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/naalj/vol37/iss1/2