Digital Authentication

AALL Leadership on Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age

2007 State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources

Are government-hosted legal resources on the Web official and capable of being considered authentic? The groundbreaking State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources, published by AALL in March 2007, reveals that a significant number of state online legal resources are considered to be official but that states have not yet implemented ready authentication by standard methods. States are increasingly moving to an online only environment for some of their core legal resources, which makes these findings particularly alarming.

State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources Full Report

Introduction
Executive Summary
Findings
State Reports
Appendices

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2009-2010 State Summary Updates

The AALL Electronic Legal Information Access and Citation Committee updated the original state summaries to determine how much progress states have made since AALL published its 2007 report. The updates show that a number of states have followed through on concerns AALL raised in the original report by adding official and authentic notations to their legal information. One of the most significant changes noted in the 2009-10 update is the addition of disclaimers to many state Web sites regarding authentication and official format of the information online. However, the report also highlights another troubling trend: a growing number of states are eliminating their print legal publications in favor of online-only without guaranteeing digital authentication or permanent public access.

Full State Summary Updates
Executive Summary
State Reports

Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age: AALL National Summit

To address the authentication issue, AALL convened a National Summit on Authentication of Digital Legal Information in Chicago on April 20-21, 2007. Approximately fifty delegates from the judiciary, the legal community, state governments, and interested organizations participated, along with AALL leaders. They discussed the findings of the Report and explored legal and technological solutions to ensure that state online legal resources are authenticated and trustworthy.

For an outline of various aspects of the authentication issue, see the agenda and presentations from the Summit which are provided below.

National Summit Agenda

• Print vs. Digital – Assumptions and Differences – Professor Robert Berring
  • "Losing the Law: a Call To Arms," 10 Green Bag 2d 279 (2007)
• Session One: AALL’s State-By-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources
  • State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources
  • Authentication of Online Legal Resources: Key Findings
• Session Two: The Technological Solutions for Best Practices
  • The Technological Solutions for Best Practices
  • U.S. Government Printing Office: FDsys Content Authentication
  • What Needs Authentication?
• Session Three: The Legal Solutions
  • The Legal Solutions
• Closing Remarks
  • Authentication of Digital Legal Information—Where Do We Go From Here?

Photographs of Delegates at the National Summit

"AALL Reaches the Tipping Point in National Leadership on Digital Authentication," AALL Spectrum, July 2007, at 6.

In June 2007, after participating in AALL's National Summit, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes and NCCUSL Commissioner Michele Timmons submitted a proposal to NCCUSL to create a study committee to explore the complex issues regarding digital authentication. In February 2008, NCCUSL informed AALL that it had approved the Study Committee on Online Authentication of Legal Materials to investigate the issues and discuss the feasibility of creating a uniform law or model act. Timmons was named chair of the Study Committee and Barbara A. Bintliff served as AALL's observer.

Study Committee Documents:

• Initial Draft (April 2009)
• Report and Recommendation for Drafting Committee (April 2009)

During NCCUSL's July 2009 annual conference, the Executive Committee unanimously approved the Study Committee's recommendation to create a Drafting Committee on Authentication and Preservation of Electronic State Legal Materials. Timmons was named chair of the Drafting Committee, Barbara A. Bintliff serves as the committee's reporter, and Keith Ann Stiverson is AALL's observer.

In July 2011, NCCUSL (also know as the Uniform Law Commission (ULC)) approved the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act at its Annual Meeting in Vail, Colorado. 

• Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) - Final - with prefatory note and comments (October 2011)
• UELMA Approved Text - without prefatory note or comments (July 2011)
• Interim Draft (November 19-20, 2010 Committee Meeting)
• Brief Report from 2010 Annual Meeting (July 2010)
• 2010 Annual Meeting Draft (July 2010)
• Issues Memorandum for 2010 Annual Meeting Draft (June 2010)
• Interim Draft (May 2010)
• Interim Draft (April 2010)
• Interim Draft (March 2010)
• Redline Draft (March 2010)
• Committee Meeting Agenda (March 2010)
• Committee Meeting Issues Memorandum (March 2010)
• Committee Meeting Draft (March 2010)
• Prefatory Note Draft (January 2010)
• Redline Draft (December 2009)
• Conference Call Minutes (October 2009)

Resources on the Challenges of Digital Authentication since the Summit

AALL is committed to working with other organizations to ensure the authentication and preservation of online legal resources. We are pleased with the increased state, national and international interest in seeking solutions as a result of AALL’s Authentication Report and National Summit.

Progress on Digital Authentication

• ARJD Statement of Principles: "Official" On-line Documents (Rev. May 2008)
• NCCUSL Study Committee to Investigate Online Authentication
• U.S. Government Printing Office
  • Authenticated Public and Private Laws
  • Authenticated Budget of the United States Government
  • Authenticated Federal Government Documents from the U.S. Government Printing Office [Brochure]
• Utah Provides Authentication of Administrative Rules Publications - Press Release

Articles

• ABA Legal Technology Resource Center – "State-Level Primary Legal Resources Online Trustworthy?"
• Assuring Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age
  • Part I – the Acts of Indiana and the Indiana Code, Res Gestae, June 2007, at 20.
  • Part II—the Indiana Register and the Indiana Administrative Code, Res Gestae, September 2007, at 33.
• Best Practices Exchange – "How Trustworthy Are State-Level Primary Legal Resources on the Web?"
• Can you rely on the Indiana Code?
  • Part I – Noncode sections, Res Gestae, May 2008, at 20.
• Free Government Information – "State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources"
• Indiana Law Blog – "Ind. Courts – Admissibility of Electronic Evidence – Is It Authentic?"
• "Is Primary Legal Information on the Web Trustworthy?" The Judges' Journal. Fall 2010. Vol. 49 Number 4.
• "The Lack of Effort to Ensure Integrity and Trustworthiness of Online Legal Information and Documents", The Judges’ Journal, Summer 2007, Vol.46 Num.3.
• Law Librarians’ Society of the District of Columbia – "AALL’s Authentication Summit," Law Library Lights, Summer 2007, at 26.
• "Losing the Law: a Call To Arms," 10 Green Bag 2d 279 (2007)
• "Paper Is Not a Drag," 11 Green Bag 2d 12 (2007)
• WisBlawg – From the UWLaw Library – "How Trustworthy Are State-Level Primary Legal Resources on the Web? Not Very, Says AALL Report"