In December, we promised an expansion to the Title IX Lawsuits Database each month for ten consistent months. These expansions are not simply the updating or adding lawsuits per se (we do that all the time anyway), but rather upgrades that expand the scope or interface of the database in a meaningful way.

Last month, we added a simple but necessary feature: a Changelog to catalog and summarize all changes made to database records and structures going forward. For January, we’ve built out a new wing of the database focusing on courts. We’ve added data classifications that provide more overall info regarding courts and created methods to search for lawsuit data more efficiently. This will also serve as a scaffolding for future developments.

We’ve also overhauled our lawsuit detail pages and made some other tweaks and minor improvements.

Courts Systems Classifications

Previously, it was not possible to search the database for lawsuit records by terms such as these:

• Searching for just federal lawsuits
• Searching for just federal lawsuits within X circuit
• Searching for only state lawsuits
• Searching for only state lawsuits at the lowest, intermediate, or highest state court level

It was obvious (or at least inferable) by looking at individual lawsuit record info (state, case number, court name, etc.) which cases were heard by which court, which circuit, etc. That was different, however, than being able to search, sort, and filter records systemically by those terms, let alone perform more refined searches (e.g., searching for all federal lawsuits in the Second Circuit with a disposition of “one or more claims successful”).

We’ve tagged each lawsuit record with a new data field called “Court System.” This allows users to identify, search for, and sort lawsuit records by any combination of the following tags:

• Federal Court
  • Federal District Court or Federal Appellate Court
    • First Circuit
    • Second Circuit
    • Third Circuit
    • Fourth Circuit
    • Fifth Circuit
    • Sixth Circuit
    • Seventh Circuit
    • Eighth Circuit
    • Ninth Circuit
    • Tenth Circuit
    • Eleventh Circuit
• State Court
  • Highest State Court
  • Intermediate State Court
  • State Trial Court
• Other Government Regulatory Institution

If you’re curious what the last bullet might represent, it refers to Department of Education/OCR investigations, an area of potential future expansion.

You’ll see the new Court System info toward the left of each lawsuit record. Searching or filtering lawsuit records by any of the above parameters (Federal Court, Federal District Court, or Third Circuit) will return this lawsuit record and any others that fit the selected criteria.

Individual Court Detail Pages

The court names listed in each lawsuit record are no longer dead text. They are now linked to dedicated court pages with more info about the court, with all lawsuits the database is currently tracking for that court listed below.

Courts are no longer just one field of data stamped into a lawsuit record. They are now a miniature data hub with the following identifiable info attached to them:

• The court’s classification (federal, circuit X, state, etc.)
• A link to the court’s website
• The number of lawsuits heard by the court
• Jurisdiction. This is for federal appellate courts only, and it lists all the federal district courts directly beneath them.
• State court hierarchy. Since some states have different naming conventions (e.g., in California the highest court is the Supreme Court, in New York, it is the Court of Appeals), the database will list the conventions particular to that state when a state court detail page is being viewed.
• The court’s location info.

Each court detail page will be a site of future expansion, which we’ll cover in another update.

Dedicated Courts Page

We’ve added another page on the main menu titled Courts. At the top of this page is a search engine that casts a wider net than the previous search engines we’ve set up.

As you’d expect, the search engine allows users to search for courts (state or federal) based on court-specific parameters. The search contains a secondary section which allows users to modify the search to include courts containing specified lawsuit info. Using this, users can execute very particular searches such as “show me all courts in any second circuit federal district court where Z law firm has litigated a lawsuit which had a successful outcome against X school.”

Examples of more generic yet useful searches include:

• State & federal courts with active cases
• State & federal courts that have heard a lawsuit against X school
• State & federal courts with a disposition of “one or more claims successful”
• State & federal courts where Z law firm has litigated

Below the search engine are two interactive tables. The first is a table of all federal courts that have heard a lawsuit recorded in the database, and the second is a table of all state courts that have heard state-level lawsuits.

Individual Lawsuit Detail Views Updated

We’ve also updated lawsuit detail views with the new court and other info. The Changelog (including its summary reports) will now track added or updated courts. Lastly, for those who haven’t signed up to the database, we’ve updated our guide with a brief walkthrough of the additions we’ve implemented today.

Our databases will continue to grow every month. More to come. Thank you for helping make this happen.