Connecting with the Courts: Online Access to State Judicial Systems

Michael Parkin, Justin Wedeking

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Access to the legal system is critical in any democracy. In this article, we extend past research by exploring a new and twenty-first century dimension of access—namely, access to a state's court system through its judiciary website. Using data from all fifty state judiciary websites, we find that online access is associated with the complexity and efficiency of the court system and, to a lesser extent, state-level Internet penetration and the size of the legal community, while partisan control generally has a modest or null effect. This suggests that practical or administrative considerations are more influential than political considerations when establishing online access to state courts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)22-36
Number of pages15
JournalJustice System Journal
Volume38
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 National Center for State Courts.

Keywords

  • State courts
  • judiciary
  • online access
  • websites

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Law

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