Michies Va Law on Disk at the end of July. In early June we had
discovered & reported a case that was missing its text. After receiving
the new disk in July, 8 weeks later, not only was that case still
missing its text, but two other cases were found to be missing their
text (headers only were there). Concerned about how pervasive the
problem was, I then took about 30-45 minutes looking case by case in a
random section of the disk and found a fourth case with the same
problem. How many others were missing their complete text?
The final outcome was that Lexis Law Publishing (now
handling Michies) was able to identify a single load date from Lexis to
the CD that had a glitch. All cases for that load date were affected.
I cannot recall the actual load date, but it was either 1994 or 1996, so
the assumption is the data has been missing at least 2 years! Even
though requested, I have yet to hear back from Lexis Law as to the total
number of cases that were missing their text.
The original plan was for a corrected disk to be sent
the next quarter. I cited an example of another CD vendor who found
much less serious "glitches" with their products and in less than 2
weeks released corrected disks to all subscribers. So within days OUR
firm had new disks with the corrections, but other subscribers would
have to wait the three months. I expressed my alarm that they were
leaving others out on a limb to potentially commit malpractice, but
apparently management didn't think that was a big enough concern.
In answer to the question of why the correction was not
made on the July disk for at least the first problem found 8 weeks
earlier, I was told that it just missed their deadline for inclusion.
The disk was originally slated to have been released in early July but
was delayed until the end of July because of other technical problems.
So yes, there are "CD's out there with missing or
defective 'pages,'" even complete cases, and I don't know how one would
confirm the extent of the problem. It seems to me that is exactly what
this publisher is banking on!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Helen S. Reed [SMTP:evvlaw@evansville.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 1998 10:07 AM
> To: Jane Burke
> Cc: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: Re: 219 BR : missing pages
>
> As I was reading the correspondence on defective copies of 219 BR this
> AM (ours is defective), an attorney passing by commented that their
> office didn't get many hard copy reporters since "it's all on CD now."
>
> How about this question: are there CD's out there with missing or
> defective "pages," and if so, how are subscribers supposed to check
> for
> this?
> Just wondering --
>
> Helen S. Reed, Librarian
> William H. Miller Law Library
> Evansville IN 47708
> 812-435-5175
> evvlaw@evansville.net
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