Video and audio recordings of oral arguments for appellate cases as far back as Doe v. Gonzaga University (2001) to the present are now available in our Title IX Lawsuits Database. This implementation is the focus of our sixth monthly database expansion.

Oral arguments offer attorneys the opportunity to highlight or clarify arguments raised in their appellate briefs as well as answer judges’ questions. Attorneys are limited to fifteen minutes per side (in practice they occasionally run longer), with the opening attorney often reserving a few minutes for rebuttal.

Among other things, oral arguments offer the audience a window into the rhetoric and technicalities of legal argumentation, the professional (and sometimes passionately personal) opinions of legal professionals, and the ability of attorneys to literally think on their feet.

Oral arguments are located in two places in our database. The first is the Oral Arguments page, where all recordings are corralled into one place. Second, oral arguments are found in the “Detail” pages of individual lawsuits.

Database Updates Recap

In addition to adding oral arguments, we have made the following record updates to the database so far this month:

• 36 lawsuits added
• 971 legal files (~16,000 pages) added, the most of any month to date
• 22 updates to outcomes for pre-existing lawsuits
• 23 law firms added
• 23 schools added
• 13 new state court venues added
• 47 judges added

These updates are all tracked in the database changelog.

This has been our sixth monthly expansion since the 11/29/2018 relaunch. Here is a brief chronology of our expansions:

• June 2019 – in progress…
• May 2019 – oral arguments, released today
• April 2019 – “save” feature for lawsuits & research notes implemented
• March 2019 – expansion of judge records, various user interface updates
• February 2019 – expansion of scope of lawsuits to include dating violence, stalking, exploitation, harassment, etc.
• January 2019 – expansion of court system records
• December 2018 – implementation of a changelog, database load speeds halved

The database continues to get better each month. This expansion wraps up not only May, but also a six-month stretch of continuous development and expansion. We’ll be releasing a 6-month report on the progress we’ve made soon.

If you aren’t signed up to our Title IX Lawsuits Database, we invite you to do so at this link.

Best,

The Title IX for All team