KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

Many of you are probably familiar with the “Wayback Machine” as a resource for finding archived web pages. The Wayback Machine is part of the Internet Archive. “Wayback”  is used in the request “Can you do a Wayback on that?”, meaning, can you find archived web pages for that website? See Michael Fagan, Note, “Can you do a Wayback on That?” The Legal Community’s Use of Cached Web Pages In and Out of Trial, 13 B.U. J. Sci. & Tech. L. 46 (2007) (available for free, but without page numbers, at the journal’s website.  Available WITH page numbers from HeinOnline, LEXIS and Westlaw at KCLL). The article covers a lot of ground and speaks mainly to cached web pages in general, including some of the possible difficulties in getting cached web pages admitted under the Federal Rules of Evidence. A more recent law review note analyzes and provides a framework for determining the admissibility of archived web pages from the Wayback Machine under the Federal Rules of Evidence. See Deborah R. Eltgroth, Note, Best Evidence and the Wayback Machine: Toward a Workable Authentication Standard for Archived Internet Evidence, 78 Fordham L.R. 181 (2009) (available at the Fordham Law Review website).

Both articles provide an overview of how the Wayback Machine works. The website itself has extensive FAQ and legal FAQ pages describing how the site works and some of its limitations. There is also an information page for use by lawyers and a standard affidavit  for use by Internet Archive staff in authenticating archived web page printouts, should that be necessary.

The “Wayback Machine” is named in honor of Mr. Peabody’s WABAC (pronounced way-back) machine from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show. See the FAQs Wayback Machine. If these cultural references don’t mean anything to you, then here is a Toonepedia entry on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show and another with an image of the dog Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman with their WABAC Machine.

On December 1, 2009, amendments to federal court rules took effect, including important changes to the rules regarding the computation of time. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended, as were the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. A list of rules amended with respect to time computation, as well as a list of new rules and amendments not having to do with time computation, can be found on the Federal Rulemaking page of the U.S. Courts website. 

Here are links to amended versions of the rules online:

•  Federal Rules of Civil Procedure  
•  Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (with the corresponding Ninth    Circuit rules) 
•  Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure  
•  Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure  

The changes in the national rules required corresponding changes to local court rules and general orders.  The current versions of the local rules – civil and criminal – for both the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and the Eastern District of Washington are on the courts’ websites (Western District) (Eastern District).

Changes to the local rules for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington and those for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington are also posted on those courts’ websites.