Judges on Blogs

Third-year law student Ian Best has been blogging mightily this semester, examining the phenomenon of legal blogging in his own blog, 3L Epiphany. Recently he posted a list of cases that cite blogs and then followed that up by posing questions to the judges. Interviews with two judges are posted: Justice Judith Lanzinger of the Ohio Supreme Court and Judge Richard Kopf (federal district court, Nebraska).

My guess is that legal blogs will partially fill the “practicality” gap between the legal academy and the rest of us. Blogs provide a unique opportunity for law teachers to directly influence the development of the law in near real time. Doug Berman [co-owner of Sentencing Law and Policy blog], and other legal academics like him, have already done so. They deserve great credit. -- Judge Kopf

Judge Kopf also comments on the change that electronic filing has made in federal courts and speculates about other changes that may come -- for instance, digital recordings (transcribed elsewhere rather than by court reporters) and testimony via interactive video.

Filed in: blogs, judges, Kopf, Lanziger, Best, 3L-Epiphany, Berman, Sentencing-Law-and-Policy, technology