Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Katrina, from the perspective of Court Administration

I am horror stricken, as most of us are, as to the disaster that Hurricane Katrina has caused in our gulf coast states. I hope that the relief efforts will escalate and move forward to lessen the burden on those displaced persons.

I am also interested in learning how this problem has impacted the court system in New Orleans. My first few attempts to access official court websites resulted in ... site not found error screens. I suppose that a significant number of websites that are hosted by servers in New Orleans are experiencing these same errors.

I did find an interesting blog article at Underneath Their Robes. With credit given to How Appealing.

The scene is being described as a legal ghost town. Word is that an unnofficial temporary site for the Clerk of the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is at Chief Judge King's office in Houston.

One official web site that is working is the US District for the Eastern District of Lousiana, which states that the District Court is closed until further notice, and refers cases to neighboring districts for emergency filings.

Please let me know if you find any information regarding state and local court status in the effected areas.

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