
Update: The photocopier hardee-har was a laugh on the surface, but as we told you in a cover story earlier this year, there are important precedents to be set based on how this court case — which centers on whether the county recorder’s office has to provide reasonably priced electronic and physical copies of records to the public and/or third-party companies — turns out.
The PD reports this week that the county just authorized an additional $30,000 for legal fees as the case proceeds in the Ohio Supreme Court.
***
You know what a photocopier is. Your grandma knows what a photocopier is. Everyone knows what a photocopier is.
But when it comes to legalese, public records, lawsuits, and lawyers, the definition, apparently, is up in the air.
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2011.

If he is in charge of the IT department and can not tell what a photocopier is he should be fired for being incompetent.
Data Trace’s legal team, headed by Marburger, commissioned Case Western Reserve professor Peter Shulman to write a report on the history of telecommunications, parsing exactly this: what constitutes a “photocopier’ and a “photocopy.” It is not at all clear. The report was 40 pages and introduced into evidence by Marburger. Marburger’s “utter disbelief’ was feigned, and the Plain Dealer owes Patterson an apology for mocking him and should be chiding Marburger for his playacting here.