I'm working on a resource page to encourage courts to use weblogs and syndication technology to publish more court information on the Web. The early draft is available here, and I welcome comments, ideas and links, especially from those folks at Day 2 of BloggerCon 2003 attending theWeblogs and the Law session.

A Charleston hotel has announced that it has appealed an adverse jury verdict to the West Virginia Supreme Court in a case brought by a hotel employee seeking damages for the hotel's use of a video and audio surveillance system installed in the public areas of the hotel. According to the press release, the jury awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages and $400,000 in punitive damages.

Bonus appellate arcana: Appeals in West Virginia are actually filed in the circuit court where the order being appealed was entered (in this case the Circuit Court of Kanawha County). This is to allow the circuit clerk's office to assemble the record designated by the petitioner, whereupon the petition and record are transmitted to the Court for review. Depending on the size of the record, this process can take three to four weeks. Though petitioners must pay the costs for copying and assembling the record, there is no filing fee to file an appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court.