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>Unsurprisingly, the increase was bigger for citations by lower courts... The researchers suspect this is showing that Wikipedia is used more by judges or clerk

>Unsurprisingly, the increase was bigger for citations by lower courts... The researchers suspect this is showing that Wikipedia is used more by judges or clerks who have a heavier workload, for whom the convenience of Wikipedia offers a greater attraction. This makes sense. I don't know anything about the legal profession but they must have their own search tools and databases? Is it not easily accessible or digitized for all levels? I don't get why it would be easier in the first place to search Google or Wikipedia.

_fat_santa 4y ago
If I had to bet, they have those systems but they are a pain to use. If I had to speculate, it would be a lot like those citation search sites you used in College, they simply didn’t have the usability of Google. You had to enter search terms very specifically, whereas with Google you just search for what you want and Google figures out how to structure the query best to give you the results you want. I can totally see a scenario where a clerk needs to look something up on a Friday afternoon, the though of pulling up the proper search catalog pains them so they shortcut, googling the thing they are looking for a reading the citations on Wikipedia. If I was a law clerk I would 100% do this.
- vharuck 4y ago
  Not to mention that Wikipedia also acts as a filter for importance. Important cases are more likely to have articles. This is bad for exhaustive research, but great for "I need to write a summary by tomorrow."
- RaCaS123 4y ago
  Speaking from experience, you're right given its convenience. Though, I (and any responsible lawyer for that matter) will then also look up the case on WestLaw/Lexis given Wikipedia is very much an imperfect source.
gergov 4y ago
you would be surprised how the world operates outside of tech it's scary excel sheets and a lot of ducttape hell I wouldn't be surprised if the next round of innovation will be born out of tech people going into gov and realizing how much man hours there are to automate
- stevage 4y ago
  That movement has been around a long time - see Code for America and its offshoots for example. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. It's easy to think that new tech will fix everything but you need to understand the bureaucracy the tech resides within.

_fat_santa 4y ago

If I had to bet, they have those systems but they are a pain to use. If I had to speculate, it would be a lot like those citation search sites you used in College, they simply didn’t have the usability of Google. You had to enter search terms very specifically, whereas with Google you just search for what you want and Google figures out how to structure the query best to give you the results you want. I can totally see a scenario where a clerk needs to look something up on a Friday afternoon, the though of pulling up the proper search catalog pains them so they shortcut, googling the thing they are looking for a reading the citations on Wikipedia. If I was a law clerk I would 100% do this.

vharuck 4y ago
Not to mention that Wikipedia also acts as a filter for importance. Important cases are more likely to have articles. This is bad for exhaustive research, but great for "I need to write a summary by tomorrow."
RaCaS123 4y ago
Speaking from experience, you're right given its convenience. Though, I (and any responsible lawyer for that matter) will then also look up the case on WestLaw/Lexis given Wikipedia is very much an imperfect source.

gergov 4y ago

you would be surprised how the world operates outside of tech it's scary excel sheets and a lot of ducttape hell I wouldn't be surprised if the next round of innovation will be born out of tech people going into gov and realizing how much man hours there are to automate

stevage 4y ago
That movement has been around a long time - see Code for America and its offshoots for example. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. It's easy to think that new tech will fix everything but you need to understand the bureaucracy the tech resides within.