Legal and Ethical Considerations When Analyzing American Courtroom Data
Keywords:
Language and Law, Research Ethics, Courtroom DataAbstract
Legally speaking, and subject to very few exceptions, courtroom data generated in the United States is part of the public domain. Once a researcher has acquired such data, unless it is subject to separate preexisting copyright or other legal protections, there are no legal restrictions on its use. This is true at both the state and federal levels, and regardless of the citizenship of the researcher in question. Courtroom data can always be acquired by visiting the clerk of court’s office in which it has been filed and can increasingly be obtained online as well. When working with courtroom data from the United States, researchers are advised to consider the presence of personally identifying information in that data and whether it can be obscured or anonymized prior to the publication of any results.
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Copyright (c) 2026 David Griffin, Alex Moe
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