Lookin' for -Law- in all the wrong places.

November 16, 2006 3:55 AM

Is it possible to find out details pertaining to, or resulting from copyright lawsuits?

I would like to find out what grounds a lawsuit was filed under, and if possible the outcome of the trial. I'm no law student, so forgive me if it is totally obvious that the information I'm looking for is private.

Here's what I have so far:

1. I have what I beleive to be a court district acronym : azdce
Arizona Department of Copyright Enforcement?
2. I also know who the defendant and plaintiff are, but I will not disclose for privacy reasons.
3. I also have what I beleive to be a docket number which I will also keep private. (big help, I know)
4. I can tell you that the listing I am chasing is on this page here

Any help, or references to librarys where this information is stored, please let me know.

Thanks in advance mefi.

posted by psyward to law & government (12 comments total)

The other abbreviations on that page all appear to refer to federal district courts (i.e. txsdce -> TXSD -> Southern District of Texas). There's only one district in Arizona, hence AZD. I have no idea what CE means.

In any case you can probably get the case through the court's document filing system but you'll have to set up an account and pay possibly up to USD 0.08/page.
posted by grouse at 4:08 AM on November 16, 2006

Thank you for that.

I assume these documents are available to the public as I've seen them reproduced on The Smoking Gun before.
posted by psyward at 4:36 AM on November 16, 2006

Search Arizona's court records.
posted by delmoi at 4:52 AM on November 16, 2006

But you might want to go down to your local clerk of courts office and ask them, if you can't find anything on the web.
posted by delmoi at 4:52 AM on November 16, 2006

If you are willing to pay you can use services like lexisnexis or Westlaw. I have linked to the "subscription pages" where you could find out how to do a single search, I think.
posted by irisell at 5:01 AM on November 16, 2006

It appears the records I'm looking for are reserved for 'Official Court Business.' Bummer.

Thank you all for your help though.
posted by psyward at 5:09 AM on November 16, 2006

To access the public documents in a federal lawsuit, you need a PACER account (I believe the access fee is 7 cents a page, but I don't know). Any document, not under seal, which is not accessible through PACER, is accessible for a copying fee from the clerk of the court. You don't need a particular purpose to access public documents in a lawsuit (in my experience, protective orders sealing documents from public view are not easy to come by). Lexis and Westlaw don't tend to have all the filings, just the opinions. If you have a docket number, you can find everything you're looking for on PACER. If you know who the judge hearing the case is, you can try calling his or her clerk and asking for copies of the filings. You most likely won't get them, but it won't be the first time the clerk has heard that request.

If the document is not available through PACER and the case is old enough that the records are no longer available to the clerk of the court, you can sometimes ask the presiding judge's clerk for copies, but most often you need to go the Federal Records Center. For those documents, you need the session number, the location number and the box number (the clerk of the court should be able to provide those to you). You call the FRC, give them that information, make and appointment and show up. They also charge a fee for copying.
posted by crush-onastick at 6:00 AM on November 16, 2006

delmoi: This appears to be a federal case at first glance. It also appears that psyward is in Australia.

irisell: If the opinion is unpublished it might not show up in Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw. Most of the case materials won't show up in any case.

psyward: You might want to call the clerk and ask why the records are sealed if that is the case.
posted by grouse at 6:12 AM on November 16, 2006

crush-onastick has it.

Also, I think you're being way to deferential to the "privacy" of the parties to the dispute... if they have indeed filed a lawsuit, their dispute is a matter of public record already. Plus, that link you gave us narrows the possibilities down to 3 suits involving a total of 5 parties.

Anyway, go hit PACER.
posted by rkent at 6:18 AM on November 16, 2006

District Court of Arizona FAQ - How do I get copies of a case?
posted by footnote at 6:35 AM on November 16, 2006

Another thing - as grouse mentioned, some of the papers might have been filed under seal to protect proprietary information in an IP case. Eventually they might get unsealed.

Also, if the parties came to a settlement rather than going to trial (which is very likely -- hardly anything actually goes to trial) then the terms of the settlement are probably confidential and you won't be able to find out anything about the outcome other than that the case was dismissed.
posted by footnote at 6:48 AM on November 16, 2006

There are only 3 cases in the District of Arizona on the page you mentioned, and each was filed late last month. Two of the complaints, filed by the same plaintiff, allege copyright infringement of certain furniture designs allegedly owned by plaintiff. The third is an unrelated complaint seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement. Other than filing the complaints, basically no action has been taking in any of these cases. I have the three complaints; if you want any of them, let me know.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:11 AM on November 16, 2006