The team at Follow Our Courts has been quiet over the holiday season, but we’ve been busy. I’m excited to announce that the website is live, and so much more.
Content
That means subscribers now have access to all our content, past and present. You will be able to open any link you get in an email or see on social media, and you will be able to surf around the site among cases, obituaries, opinion pieces, legal industry announcements, features, legislation stories and analyses.
Customize your experience
That content is also customizable, not just by category, but by judge, location, attorney, law firm, court, business or however else you would like your stories presented. Just go to the bottom of any article and choose the button that suits your needs.
We have added the Topics to Follow feature (scroll to the bottom of this or any story.) Any subscriber may go to the checklist of topics on the website and click the ones to follow (civil cases, environment, housing, COVID-19…). Follow Our Courts will send an email with summaries and links whenever there is fresh content in your selected topics. No matter how many topics you follow, all of your fresh-content alerts will be collected into one email on any day we publish stories in your area of interest.
Feature items
On the bottom of the homepage, you will see three new features.
One is the calendar. January is already packed with a combination of webinars, meetings and live events. There is no charge to have your event included, and you can submit entries by email to me.
Another is a weekly poll. You will be able to give your anonymous opinion on timely controversies and immediately see the total vote results.
And the third is really just my whimsy. Follow Our Courts is observing national and world holidays like World Hypnosis Day, Car Donation Month and National Brownie Day. These are short items that take a legal perspective on all kinds of things. Pop onto the site every day and see what’s new, or click on the Did You Know? button in the box’s banner to read past stories.
Still to come
In the coming weeks subscribers can expect to start seeing video storytelling, and audio versions of much of our reporting.
The calendar is an interactive list right now, but soon users will have the option to switch their view to a classic calendar grid, or toggle between the view formats.
The opinion page is up, but is not populated with content yet. As letters to the editor, guest columns and commentaries are submitted, that category will have more to offer. All are welcome to contribute by email to me.
And deeper into the future
Our plans for Phase 3 of the launch include forming an editorial board and providing regular editorials on local cases, legislation and courtroom news.
We are tentatively planning to add podcasts.
And users who want to subscribe only to access the content will be able to opt out of the weekly email roundups.
I invite you to reach out to me to share what works best for you and what would make your user experience better.
Thank you for being part of this journalism project dedicated to the Inland Empire.
