Check the Sources: Why Secret Computer Code Matters and How Defense Counsel Can Get It

Attorneys and courts should not simply trust that computer programs are reliable. Why should litigants have faith in evidence that purports to be accurate when the inner workings of the computer program that produced the evidence are shrouded in mystery? Source code review is necessary for a complete assessment of a program’s reliability. Tamar Lerer discusses pretrial strategies to help obtain source code when a program has not been demonstrated to be reliable.