Clutch Justice · Course Catalog

The records
are public.
Use them.

Paid email courses on court records, judicial accountability, and institutional forensics. The methodology behind three years of Clutch Justice investigations — made teachable.

Browse Courses About the Instructor →
2
Courses Live
12
Lessons
48
Quiz Questions
2
Certificates
Course 1 — Now Enrolling

How to Read a Court Record

L1 Anatomy of a Docket
L2 Orders vs. Opinions
L3 Navigating Michigan Court Systems
L4 Reading Discipline Records
L5 Spotting Procedural Anomalies
L6 Building a Case Picture
$59 $79
Use code CLUTCH25 → $44.25
Enroll Now →
How It Works

No platform.
No login. Just email.

Each course is a structured sequence of lessons delivered directly to your inbox — with quizzes at the end of every lesson and a certificate when you finish.

📧
Step 01
Enroll & Pay
Secure checkout via Stripe. One-time purchase. Your first lesson arrives within 24 hours.
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Step 02
Lessons by Email
One lesson every two days, straight to your inbox. 10–15 minutes each. No app, no platform.
✅
Step 03
Quiz Each Lesson
Each lesson links to an interactive quiz. Four questions, immediate feedback, scored on the spot.
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Step 04
Earn Your Certificate
Complete all six lessons and quizzes. Download and print your certificate of completion.
Course Catalog

The Accountability
Research Series

Three courses. One methodology. Start with the records. End with the system.

Course 01 Now Enrolling
How to Read a Court Record
Court records are public documents. Most people can't use them — not because the information is hidden, but because nobody taught them how the system is organized or what to look for. This course closes that gap.
Michigan Courts Docket Navigation ADB Records PACER Procedural Analysis
$59
one-time · introductory
6 lessons · 4 quizzes each · certificate
Enroll Now →
Code CLUTCH25 → $44.25
L1
Anatomy of a Docket — Case number structure, party lists, entry types, and why sort order matters before you read a single entry.
L2
Orders vs. Opinions — The functional difference, where to find each, and what the entries preceding any significant order tell you.
L3
Navigating Michigan Court Systems — SCAO case search, MiCOURT, appellate portals, PACER for federal cases, and the ADB records system.
L4
Reading Discipline Records — ADB sanction types, MRPC violation codes, what the record shows, and what it leaves out.
L5
Spotting Procedural Anomalies — Scheduling gaps, orders without antecedents, rapid dispositions, attorney changes near deadlines, and pattern evidence.
L6
Building a Case Picture — Research question discipline, timeline construction, source cross-referencing, and stating what you still don't know.
Course 02 Now Enrolling
Michigan Judicial Accountability Field Guide
Michigan has four institutions responsible for holding its judiciary accountable. They operate on parallel tracks with no central coordination. This course maps all of them — how each works, where each fails, and how to use all four together.
JTC Process SCAO Data ADB Parallel Track MSC Discipline Four-Layer Framework
$89
one-time · introductory
6 lessons · 4 quizzes each · certificate
Enroll Now →
Code CLUTCH25 → $66.75
L1
The Oversight System — JTC, SCAO, ADB, MSC: what each does, what each can't do, and why the absence of coordination is the most important structural fact.
L2
The JTC Complaint Process — Filing through investigation to formal proceedings: the five stages, where most complaints stop, and the confidentiality gap.
L3
SCAO and the Power of Court Data — What the annual report holds, how to compare courts statistically, and how to FOIA what SCAO doesn't publish.
L4
The ADB as a Parallel Track — Pre-bench attorney history, overlapping jurisdiction, reinstatement petitions, and attorney-side discipline patterns as courtroom signals.
L5
The MSC as Disciplinary Authority — De novo review, the elected-court tension, reading departures from JTC recommendations, and the analytical value of dissents.
L6
Building a Complete Accountability Picture — The four-layer framework: complaint record, data record, attorney record, appellate record. What convergence means.
Course 03 Coming Soon
Institutional Forensics 101
FOIA strategy, filing pattern analysis, population-level data methods, and how to build a documentary record that survives scrutiny. The professional-level methodology course — designed for journalists, advocates, and legal professionals.
FOIA Strategy Pattern Analysis Population Data Documentary Record
$119
estimated · waitlist open
6 lessons · 4 quizzes each · certificate
Join Waitlist →
The Instructor
Rita Williams
Founder & Editor, Clutch Justice

I've spent three years reading Michigan court dockets, ADB filings, JTC records, and judicial conduct files as primary source material for published investigations. Not as a lawyer. As a researcher who had to figure out these systems from the outside and document every step of how they actually work — versus how they're supposed to.

These courses are the methodology made teachable. Everything in them comes from that fieldwork: the docket patterns, the ADB cross-referencing, the SCAO statistical analysis, the four-layer accountability framework. It's not licensed content. It's not repackaged legal education. It's the map I built by using the records.

Read more about Rita →
Publication
Founder & Editor, Clutch Justice — Independent investigative accountability journalism covering Michigan courts and judicial ethics
Consulting
Institutional Forensics · Procedural Abuse Pattern Recognition · Legal AI & Court Systems Domain Expertise
Background
12+ years federal program management (Defense Logistics Agency, GS-13/14) · Public defender organizational work · Graduate student, Capella University HMSV
Coverage
JTC complaint tracking · Barry County conviction rate analysis · Michigan Attorney Discipline Roundups · Judicial misconduct database
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Materials Are Yours, No Expiration
Course emails and the supplementary resource sheet are yours once delivered. There is no access window, no platform login to lose, and no subscription required to keep what you paid for.
⚖️
This Is Not Legal Advice
Clutch Justice courses teach research methodology and systems literacy. Nothing in any lesson constitutes legal advice, and enrollment does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you have a legal matter, consult a licensed attorney.
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Organizational Enrollment Available
Need multiple seats for a newsroom, law firm, or advocacy organization? Contact hello@clutchjustice.com for bulk enrollment pricing and institutional access options.
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Secure Checkout via Stripe
All payments processed through Stripe. Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay accepted. MailerLite takes zero commission — 100% of your purchase goes to the course. Your first lesson arrives within 24 hours of payment.
Questions.

If what you need isn't here, email directly.

hello@clutchjustice.com
No. Course 1 starts from the absolute basics — what a docket is, what a case number means — and builds from there. Course 2 assumes you can open a court record, but prior legal training is not required for either.
Course 2 is designed to stand alone. If you've never opened a court docket before, you may find Course 1 useful context — but it's not a hard prerequisite. The research tasks in Courses 2 will make more sense if you have the navigation skills from Course 1.
The institutional detail is Michigan-specific: MiCOURT, the ADB, the JTC, SCAO, the Michigan Supreme Court. The underlying analytical skills — docket navigation, reading orders and opinions, spotting procedural anomalies, four-layer accountability analysis — apply to court research in any state with comparable institutions.
Each lesson email links to an interactive quiz page. Four multiple-choice questions specific to that lesson's content. Questions reveal progressively as you answer. Immediate feedback with explanations for every answer. Score displays at the end. Lesson 6's quiz links to your certificate page.
After completing the final quiz, you're linked to a certificate page. Enter your name, and the certificate auto-fills with the completion date and course details. Print it, save it as a PDF, or screenshot it for LinkedIn. There's no verification system — the certificate is a record for you, not a credentialing mechanism.
CLUTCH25 takes 25% off the enrollment price at checkout. Course 1 drops from $59 to $44.25. Course 2 drops from $89 to $66.75. The code is available for a limited introductory period and applies once per customer per course.
Yes. Newsrooms, law firms, public defender offices, advocacy organizations, and research teams can purchase bulk enrollment. Email hello@clutchjustice.com with the number of seats and the course or courses of interest.
Start Today

The records are
already public.

Everything you need to read a Michigan court record, navigate the accountability system, and build a documentary case picture is in these courses. The methodology is the product.

Start with Course 1 — $59 Or jump to Course 2 →
Introductory discount: use code CLUTCH25 at checkout for 25% off