# Inslaw Inslaw, Inc. was a small Washington, D.C. software firm run by William ("Bill") and Nancy Hamilton. It grew out of the nonprofit Institute for Law and Social Research (founded 1973) and developed [[PROMIS]], a case-management database for prosecutors. A contract dispute with the Department of Justice drove Inslaw into bankruptcy and triggered a decades-long legal battle alleging the DOJ stole its software -- the documented legal core of [[The Octopus]] frame. ## The affair In 1982 the DOJ awarded Inslaw a roughly $9.6 million contract to install PROMIS in U.S. Attorneys' offices, which it did across all 20 offices between 1983 and 1985. A dispute over fees and over Inslaw's rights to a privately funded, enhanced version of the software escalated; the DOJ withheld payments and Inslaw went bankrupt. In 1987-88 Bankruptcy Judge George Bason ruled that the DOJ "took, converted, stole" Inslaw's enhanced PROMIS "through trickery, fraud, and deceit," awarding about $6.8 million; a U.S. District Court upheld the finding in 1989. In 1991 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed -- on the narrow ground that the bankruptcy court lacked jurisdiction, not by disproving the theft. In 1992 the House Judiciary Committee's "The Inslaw Affair" report found "strong evidence" the DOJ acted "willfully and fraudulently" and urged an independent counsel, which Attorney General William Barr declined to appoint. Finally, in 1997-98 the U.S. Court of Federal Claims rejected Inslaw's claims, finding it had not established its ownership rights -- a ruling the DOJ publicized as vindication. ## Epistemic status The theft finding was real (a bankruptcy judge plus a House committee) but never upheld at the highest levels and was contradicted by the later Bua report and the Court of Federal Claims. The wider conspiracy claims -- the back door, covert foreign sales, murders -- go far beyond anything any court established (see [[PROMIS]], [[Michael Riconosciuto]]). ## See also - [[The Octopus]] - [[PROMIS]] - [[Danny Casolaro]] - [[Wackenhut]]