NEW JERSEY STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
           New Jersey Law Center, One Constitution Square
                    New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1500

                           March 10, 1997

Joan Countryman
Administrative Office of the
United States Courts
Marshall Federal Bldg. Ste. 4-560
Columbus Circle
Washington, DC 20544

          Re:  Citation of Court opinions

Dear Ms. Countryman:

     The New Jersey State Bar Association Board of Trustees has 
endorsed the Resolution of the American Bar Association that urges 
the state and federal courts to change their systems for official 
case citation so as to encourage competition among publishers, reduce 
costs, and facilitate electronic access to court opinions.

     We respectfully urge the federal judiciary to consider changing 
the current case citation system, as recommended by the ABA. The ABA 
proposal favors a citation system which would be based on the 
sequential numbering of opinions by the judiciary, with a designation 
of the court, and numbered paragraphs. This system (which does not 
rely on volume numbers and page references) would put electronic 
publishers on an equal footing with book publishers. The expanded 
market that would result would bring down costs for everyone within 
the legal community, the courts as well as the bar. Moreover, the 
changes recommended by the ABA will facilitate timely access to 
opinions and will certainly aid the courts by permitting greater 
precision in citations, through the use of citing to paragraphs 
rather than pages. The ABA also encourages, at least for the 
present, the use of parallel citations to printed reports, until 
electronic publication becomes generally available. The NJSBA 
supports that recommendation as well.

     We appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on this most 
important issue.

                                   Very truly yours,

                                   Harold L. Rubenstein
                                   Executive Director

cc: Cynthia M. Jacob
    Jay H. Greenblatt