- send: speakers@hope.net
- name: [hope-26][speaker] Open-Source Legal Research

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## [hope-26][speaker] Open-Source Legal Research

Legal research in the USA is fully dependent on two products;
Lexis Nexis and WestLaw - these both use incredible fees
to keep out small business and independent researchers,
in essence producing a scarcity
of the most crucial resource in any democracy:
a basic comprehension of the legal rules of the game.
Layers of academia and law have been designed
to guard access to these resources,
and in recent years we are all feeling the consequences -
money alone buys access to the rulebook.

[Lexis Nexis]: https://store.lexisnexis.com/lawfirms
[WestLaw]: https://sales.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/products/westlaw-advantage/plans-pricing

These companies build their program fully on public records,
sourcing from the [Library of Congress], [GovInfo],
the [Code of Federal Regulations],
and Harvard's more recent [CaseLaw Access Project].
These public records are the original framing of open-source;
the public needs to access and learn from these same sources
to either comply, or to change the rules that bind us.

[Library of Congress]: https://congress.gov
[GovInfo]: https://govinfo.gov
[Code of Federal Regulations]: https://ecfr.gov
[CaseLaw Access Project]: https://case.law

See how simple web scrapers and advanced databases combine into
an open-source replacement for the legal gridlock we're used to,
and learn how to connect directly behind the scenes at Congress
to the people publishing these records each day.
This HOPE talk marks the release of a new public legal search engine -
open source from the homelab hardware to the public records request.

[tb]: https://thoughtbot.com
[cfa]: https://codeforamerica.org
[spd]: https://seattle.gov/police
[clerk]: https://clerk.house.gov

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### Speaker Bio: Calliope Youngblood

Calliope has learned from a decade of experience
including [SF startups][tb],
[national nonprofits][cfa],
[city governments][spd],
and the office of [Clerk of the House of Representatives][clerk].

They were hired to the Clerk's office
based on a prototype of this talk's app,
made five years ago during a more sane administration.
Since being fired by the Clerk for "too many prototypes" in 2023,
Calliope has focused on running apps from home -
using NixOS, NuShell, Elixir, and Rust.
Each of these play a role in this open-source research program.

In 2026, Calliope is conference-hopping
in a camper van as a cyber nomad,
exploring hacker spaces and feeding open-mic musicians.

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### Appendix (the problem is real!)

> "Search charges range from $0 to $469."  
> - LexisNexis ["Law Firm Per Search Pricing"](https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/terms/21/pricing.page)
>
> Basic pricing reference for one user:
>
> - [Lexis Nexis] ($150/mo)
> - [WestLaw] ($1210/mo)