I need a list of resources (such as web sites, phone numbers, or other
means) that I can use in order to find answers to the following
questions:

1.	Schedule and location of court hearings in lawsuits filed against
U.S. corporations.  Ideally I?m looking for the system that would
provide the nation-wide search based on, for example, company name,
state where the lawsuit has been filed, keywords, etc.  If such
nation-wide system does not exist, I need the list of ?smaller?
systems, such as courthouse websites for individual states, counties,
etc.  In the later case I need as much geographical coverage as possible.

2.	List of lawsuits pending for the specific company (by company name)
and as much details about these lawsuits as possible.  That would
include timeline, scheduled hearings, and the actual ?content?.

3.	I need to be able to find out the date, time, and location of
public hearings, i.e. information necessary in order to actually
attend the hearing.

4.	Resources with archive information, such as case status,
transcripts, decisions, etc.

5.	Any other useful resources that would help to do the research on
lawsuits against U.S. corporations.

Please note that I?m only interested in cases against U.S.
corporations, NOT against individuals.  However, I?m interested in all
types of cases (civil, criminal, etc.)

I?m only looking for resources and information that is open to public
and does not require special status or permissions to access (for
example, I?m not interested in resources that would require me to be
an attorney in order to gain access).  They do not necessarily have to
be free, however.

Items 1, 2, and 3 above are required to count as a complete answer. 
Items 4 and 5 are optional.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 11 Mar 2006 15:42 PST

dudka-ga,

Oh, how I wish there was an answer to your question.

I've done a heck of a lot of corporate legal research -- who's
suing/charging whom -- and wouldn't it be lovely to have a centralized
repository of all the information you're seeking.

But unfortunately, it doesn't exist.  There are thousands of discrete
courts across the country at all levels of governments, and each of
them hears corporate cases.

In order to ferret out details of what/when/who for each case, you
pretty much have to contact each individual court.


For instance, I searched the federal case management system, which
includes many -- but not all -- cases underway in federal courts.

Since the beginning of this year alone, there have been 31 cases filed
involving Microsoft:  3 bankruptcy cases, 21 civil cases, and 7
appeals.


The federal case management system will give you some information on
each case.  But to get a detailed schedule of upcoming hearings,
locations, access rules, etc, you'd need to contact each individual
court.


Please take all this into consideration, and then let us know the best
way to provide an answer.  In all likelihood, we can steer you to the
available resources, but be aware that the resources are unlikely to
be able to provide you with all the information you are seeking.

let me know what you think,

pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by dudka-ga on 11 Mar 2006 20:26 PST

pafalafa-ga,

Thanks for the response.  Oh well, I didn't really expect that there
is a centralized system with everything in it, but had to try.

Based on your comments, let me modify the requirements to the following:

REQUIREMENT 1

I need at least 3 (three) web sites/systems of courts at any level and
geographical location that would satisfy my original criteria, i.e.
allow search, hearing schedule, and some details about the cases. 
From your response it sounds like some courts may have well-organized
web sites with capabilities I'm looking for, it's just that there is
no central repository.  So can you provide me with links to "the best"
three court websites ("the best" meaning matching my criteria as
closely as possible)?

My end goal is to be able to attend court hearings in lawsuits against
U.S. corporations.  I'm not necessarily looking to attend a hearing
for the specific company or specific case.  I would prefer to be able
to attend hearings for large and well-known corporations and
interesting cases.  Therefore, it is preferable that the three court
web sites that you provide would be for major courts that have a lot
of hearings going, and these would include large U.S. companies.

REQUIREMENT 2

At least one out of three web sites you provide must be for a court in
Chicago metropolitan area.  I live in Chicago and would like to start
the research with the court that I can have an easy access to (i.e. no
travel).  So perhaps #1 above can be restated as "one web site for
Chicago area and two elsewhere in the U.S."

REQUIREMENT 3

I need you to provide me with the roadmap of how to get case details
and hearing schedule/location for the SPECIFIC company and/or SPECIFIC
case.  I understand from your comments that there may not be an easy
way to get the info, or it may not even be possible in some cases. 
However, I need the list of resources that can help me with this
research.

For example, lets say I know that McDonalds has been suied over blood
in french fries recently... and that's all I know.  My end goal is to
get into the courtroom for the hearing on that case.  What I'm looking
for is the approach I can use to do the research... understanding that
it may not be successful.

And let me once again state that when I say "approach" I'm not
necessarily looking for a web site.  Perhaps there is a phone number
for some type of case registry where I can get details?  Perhaps I can
file the information request somewhere in person?

And finally, I'm not limited to free resources.  There are bunch of
companies that do background checks, research, etc. etc. - for example
I heard about Lexis Nexis being one of the biggest.  Do any of them
offer research in the area I need?


Hope this makes the question more reasonable.  Thanks!

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 13 Mar 2006 18:34 PST

dudka-ga,

Thanks for re-framing your question.  I've been mulling things over,
but to tell the truth, I'm still not sure it's possible to provide a
clear-cut answer to it.


Tracking an individual case of interest certainly IS possible, and
it's done all the time.

In fact, if you wanted to know the specifics of any given case that
catches your eye, a good strategy would be to simply post a question
about the case here at Google Answers.

But broadly asking about finding information on any corporate case of
interest just opens up so many variables, it's hard to know where to
begin.

Keep in mind that cases, especially high profile cases, generally take
years to unfold...the principals from the Enron collapse are just now
having their day in court.

But, to start somewhere, have a look at the US Court of Appeals, 7th
Circuit, which is in Chicago:



http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/
U.S. Court of Appeals
219 S. Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60604



There is a set of menu items labelled CASE INFORMATION that give you
some options for finding information, including:
 

--Court Calendar, and the

--Oral Argument Calendar 


which tell you when the courts will be in session, but not much else.



The link for  "Docket Sheets" leads to the PACER System (Public Access
to Court Electronic Records), which can provide you a *ton* of
information but (a) you have to go through an involved sign-up
process, and (b) it's a difficult system to make heads or tails of.




The link for 'Briefs' isn't working for me, but you might want to try
it at your end.



The link for 'Oral Arguments' leads to a search page:


http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?dname=arg


Entering [ 05 ] in the YEAR box and clicking on 'List Cases' gives a
long list of cases, some of which are obviously corporate cases, such
as:



05-1003 Racine Charter One v. Racine Unifie 

05-1021 Cuna Mutual Insur v Int'l Union 39 

05-1074 Home Protective v. ADT Security 

05-1285 Confold Pacific v. Polaris Indus 


and so on....



Clicking on individual cases leads to yet more information, usually
documents from the case and sometimes even audio files of case
hearings.  For instance:


==========

05-1285 : Confold Pacific v. Polaris Indus 
Case Type: Civil  ;  Nature of Suit: Oth Contract Act-diversity 

Doc Uploaded Filed Description  
     
9 09/23/2005 09/23/2005 Oral Argument  
10 01/10/2006 01/10/2006 Opinion 

==========

Some of these cases are already completed...others are in progress.

The bottom line...there's an awful lot of information available from
this one court, but not necessarily in a format that is convenient for
the particular needs you have.


Many other courts also make case information, hearing calendars, and
so on available online.  But each court is different in what it makes
available, and how to go about accessing it.


Play around with the Circuit Court site for a bit, and then get back
to me and let me know what you think.  In particular, I'd like to hear
any suggestions you have for how to best go about answering your
challenging question.

Thanks,

paf


P.S.  Mentioning Enron reminded me of this site:


http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases.shtml


which keeps tabs on SEC litigation, many involving high profile
corporate cases.  It's another useful resource you might want to
peruse.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 18 Mar 2006 06:28 PST

dudka-ga,

Just checking in...are the sites I mentioned above useful at all?

Let me know what you think,

paf

---

Clarification of Question by dudka-ga on 21 Mar 2006 09:26 PST

pafalafa-ga,

Thanks for the info.  Unfortunately, I didn't find the
www.ca7.uscourts.gov very useful.  As I said, my number one end goal
is to get into the court room for hearing on some high-profile
corporate case.  Therefore, I definitely need 1) schedule of hearings
and 2) details on upcoming hearings.

From your response I understand that perhaps I underestimated the
complexity of the question.  I will be looking into your suggestion to
post question(s) regarding SPECIFIC cases that I would be interested
in on Google answers.

Thanks.