In Michigan, we have several sources available for online judicial opinions.  We recently found that some are better than others. 

When an opinion is issued, it is sent to an Editor's Office before being sent to the official publisher.  Often, changes are made by the Editor.  The official web site of the Michigan Court of Appeals (which, paradoxically, makes available all opinions of that court and the Supreme Court) describes that process and uses an icon to identify the "official version" of the opinion after the update is done. &

It appears that some of  the other sources post only the first, unofficial versions of the opinions and do not bother to update them when the official versions are posted.  This will sometimes lead to significant inaccuracies. 

The results of our inspection and research:

• As noted above, the official site of the Court of Appeals, at http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/resources/asp/fs.asp, posts the official version in PDF format, and flags the change with an icon &
• The ICLE archive at http://www.icle.org/michlaw/ does update the opinions and posts the official version, in HTML format and in Word or WordPerfect format as well
• The Michigan State Bar site at http://www.michbar.org/opinions/ posts only the first version, in PDF format
• The Michigan Lawyers Weekly site at http://www.michlaw.com/ posts only the first version, in HTML format

Inexplicably, however, the official Court of Appeals site has some gaps.  We regularly find that a particular decision, issued in the last couple of years and published in the official reporters, is for some reason not posted at its site.

The ICLE and Michigan Lawyers Weekly sites also include orders of the Supreme Court issued in pending cases.  The official site, for some unknown reason, does not. 

8:40:04 AM