Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Website Evidence — Judicial Notice of Data on Government Website

From Paralyzed Veterans of Am. v. McPherson, 2008 Sept. Dist. Sept 69542 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 8, 2008):

The plaintiffs request the Court take judicial notice, pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 201(b)(2), of two documents that appeared on the [California] Secretary of State's Internet website. The first is a December 6, 2007 letter approving Marin County's use of the AutoMARK model 200 for the February 2008 election. The second is a set conditions on the use of the AutoMARK, also issued on December 6, 2007 by the Secretary of State, for all California counties using this voting machine. ***"It is not uncommon for courts to take judicial notice of factual information found on the world wide web." O'Toole v. Northrop Grumman Corp., 499 F.3d 1218, 1225 (10th Cir. 2007). This is particularly true of information on government agency websites, which have often been treated as proper subjects for judicial notice. See, e.g., Kitty Hawk Aircargo, Inc. v. Chao, 418 F.3d 453, 457 (5th Cir. 2005) (taking judicial notice of approval by the National Mediation Board published on the agency's website); Coleman v. Dretke, 409 F.3d 665, 667 (5th Cir. 2005) (per curiam) (taking judicial notice of Texas agency's website); Denius v. Dunlap, 330 F.3d 919, 926-27 (7th Cir. 2003) (taking judicial notice of information on official government website); In re Wellbutrin SR/Zyban Antitrust Litig., 281 F. Supp. 2d 751, 754 n.2 (E.D. Pa. 2003) (taking judicial notice of the Food and Drug Administration's list of new and approved drugs); United States ex rel. Dingle v. BioPort Corp., 270 F. Supp. 2d 968, 972 (W.D. Mich. 2003) (citation omitted) ("Public records and government documents are generally considered not to be subject to reasonable dispute . . . . This includes public records and government documents available from reliable sources on the Internet."); Cali v. E. Coast Aviation Servs., Ltd., 178 F. Supp. 2d 276, 287 n.6 (E.D.N.Y. 2001) (taking judicial notice of documents from Pennsylvania state agencies and Federal Aviation Administration); In re Agribiotech Sec. Litig., No. CV-S-990144 PMP (LRL), 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5643, *4-5, 2000 WL 35595963, *2 (D. Nev. Mar. 2, 2000) ("In this new technological age, official government or company documents may be judicially noticed insofar as they are available via the worldwide web ").

Held, given the absence of any dispute concerning the posted documents or their accuracy, and the absence of objection, judicial notice taken.

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