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BOOK REVIEW BRB's Guide to County Court Records By Michael Sankey
County Court Records is part of a continuing series of references prepared by BRB and Facts on Demand to assist document retrieval companies and private investigators. This book is still needed in the Internet age, because not everything is yet online. While the United States federal court system has most of its dockets accessible from online (the PACER system), and can be searched on a global basis from legal services such as provided by Westlaw, Bloomberg, and LexisNexis, the same is not true of all of the courts at the state level. Unlike those online subscription services, this book covers all of the County Courts—or the equivalent, such as parish courts in Louisiana—and provides information to those who need to get documents, filings, or just dockets from these courts. At present, approximately 30 states have some form of online searching of civil litigation, probate, and other civil filings. For the balance of those states, as well as for some courts in these 30 states themselves, this book becomes a critical reference. Each county record provides an overview of the characteristics of the local County Court, including what records are restricted from public access (these are usually criminal and family court matters). It also indicates the kind of information that the court will obtain for you, or that which you must obtain yourself, or use a specialized firm to obtain. That is a very good thing to know—in terms of costs and delivery times. The civil and criminal name searches, which are also included in the summaries, are of less interest to competitive intelligence professionals. In addition to the profiles for each county court, County Court Records provides a very well-written and designed state summary page detailing the structure of each state court system. As those of us who have gotten into the weeds in this area know, names of courts vary widely from state to state. The highest court in the federal system is the Supreme Court. In New York State, the name of the basic trial level court is also the Supreme Court. This introduction for each state enables those of us who have to navigate this morass to at least understand where we should be looking as well as where we should not be looking. It also indicates when the records of courts of limited jurisdiction have had their records combined with courts of general jurisdiction. Sometimes this can make the search of the materials harder; at other times it can make them much easier. Finally, County Court Records tells you where there is online access available on a statewide or a more limited basis for these trial courts. This alone is incredibly valuable information. While I do not think everyone in the competitive intelligence business needs to have this, if you are going to have to navigate the world of state trial courts as a part of your work, County Court Records is an invaluable guide. About the reviewer John McGonagle is co-author of eight books on competitive intelligence including A Manager’s Guide to Competitive Intelligence and Protecting Your Company Against Competitive Intelligence. He is also the research editor of the Arthur Andersen European Community Sourcebook. In 2007, McGonagle received the Meritorious Award from the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals. He is currently the Chair of ASP’s John Goodman Award Committee for innovation in strategic planning. John holds a B.A. from Yale College, a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, an L.L.M. from the George Washington University, and an M.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. |
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© 2012 Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals |