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Re: Retention Scheduling of Intermediate Appellate Court Records



To be honest, I've had as much success ferreting out
important bits of history from "minor" court cases that I
have from "major" ones.   I think it far easier from a working
point of view to NOT try to differentiate between cases.  Besides
the documentation at each court level is sometimes different
which gives legal historians a better picture of the arguments,
use of evidence, etc.

I don't know how you define "important" cases -- by the crime? by
the individuals involved? the nature of the case?    We had a case
in Panama City where a suspect was arrested for breaking and en-
tering a bar on the basis that his pockets were full of quarters sup-
posedly taken from the vending machines.   After his conviction, the
suspect asked that the Supreme Court take his case after the appellate
court turned him down.  The result was Gideon vs. Wainwright (1963)
which affirmed the right to counsel, considered one of the top ten
U.S.Supreme Court decisions in history.

I have worked with Circuit Court case files and with records of law firms.
In every case, we considered "only keep the most important ones"...for
the social historian, even the minor circuit court files were important.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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