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Thursday, October 22, 2020

PACER, military justice, and politics

The military justice system's absence from the PACER system is figuring in a contested election for county prosecutor in Lisbon, Ohio. One candidate is questioning his opponent's claimed experience; the other says his cases as an Army judge advocate were in the military justice system. The newspaper checked on PACER and came up empty, which is not a surprise. FWIW, a search just now of Westlaw's military cases reveals no reference to the former JAG. That's of course possible if none of his cases went up on appeal. As more ex-JAGs seek public office, this could be a recurring problem. One thing that all lawyers -- especially those who may have long-term political ambitions -- might want to do is keep a running list of every case they have handled.
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1 comment:

  1. Terri R. ZimmermannOctober 23, 2020 at 9:14 AM

    For those unfamiliar with the system, military appellate opinions usually list the name of the military trial judge, but rarely mention the names of the trial lawyers (and if they do, it's usually a very bad thing). So if he was a prosecutor or defense counsel his name likely would not appear in a Westlaw search. I concur in keeping a personal record. I found it useful when applying for board certification -- they require info such as style of case, opposing counsel, judge, whether expert witnesses were examined, how many court appearances, etc. Thank you, Excel.

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