Free Access to Law?

Caselaw! All you can carry!

Hello Friends in the Computer,

I am, generally speaking, not a breaking news type of blogger. I am a “let me talk about my feelings and how they relate to breaking news” type blogger.

But I have some breaking news? Maybe?

I was looking at legal tech websites, as I do, and I happened to notice that the Ravel Law URL now is a public access case site. Search and API access available! There doesn’t appear to be any usage restrictions. Based on the Internet Archive Wayback machine, this happened some time between June and September of this year.

If you recall, when this was first announced in 2015, there were usage limits on non-open states and users were limited to 500 cases a day. That was to last for 8 years - 8 of the longest years in human history, as it turns out - but now I guess it’s all free to use?

And just in time! Generative AI needs content, especially well structured legal content.

So bust through that data like you’re on Supermarket Sweep and make some cool stuff.

(Note: the caselaw ends in 2018. But still…good enough to do a POC build.)

Everyone in the 1990s looked 40 years old.

Be Well,

Sarah

p.s. Did you notice I put the subscribe button right above the page fold before the breaking news? Look at me being almost like a real blogger.