Howard Bashman (of the must-read How Appealing blog) wrote this critique of the Second Circuit’s website in a recent article for law.com ranking the websites of the various federal Circuits:
“My final bit of criticism is reserved for the New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which allows visitors to access newly issued opinions via three types of searches. Unfortunately, those different methods often produce different results. There’s no reason why an appellate court’s Web site should require users to perform three searches to ensure that they have seen all newly issued opinions. The 2nd Circuit’s site is alone among the federal appellate courts in creating this potentially confusing situation.”
(Click here for the entire article). Unlike some courts, moreover, the Second Circuit’s website does not allow on-line access to briefs (contra the 7th and 8th Circuits) or allow users to hear audio recordings of oral arguments (same). Nor does it contain a daily summary of decisions rendered (contra the 8th). Needless to say, Howard did not rank the Second Circuit’s site as one of the better ones.
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