Author: Susan Lewis-Somers at Internet Date: 3/13/0 10:27 AM Priority: Normal BCC: citation at AO-OCPPO TO: ABA Citation Resolution at Internet Subject: Adopt ABA Public Domain Citations to Court Opinions Honorable members of the Committee on Automation and Technology: I am an academic law librarian and an attorney who urges that you adopt the ABA recommendation for a public domain citation system for federal court opinions. PUBLIC DOMAIN CITATIONS WOULD ALLOW LITIGANTS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO CITE TO FEDERAL CASE LAW While the Willamette University Law Library's primary patrons are our students and faculty, we also serve members of the bar and the public who come to the law library to conduct legal research. These public researchers, many of whom are sole or small firm practitioners and pro se litigants, have few means to use the costly Lexis and Westlaw services to find recent federal cases not yet published in paper. Other researchers, located in rural areas like Eastern Oregon, may not have access to a law library within a convenient driving distance and, thus, may not have ready access to traditional federal case reporters. However, all of these researchers are able to find federal case law on the Internet. But they are unable to include pinpoint citations to relevant pages in these Internet-published cases in their court filings because Internet-published cases may not include references to the West-copyrighted pagination in its federal reporters. Yet, in most cases, it is the pages in these West reporters that must be cited under your current rules. A public domain citation system, with paragraph numbering for pinpoint citations independent of the West pagination, would allow these small attorneys and pro se litigants to cite to federal court decisions found on the Internet, as those who use the West reporters or Lexis and Westlaw (with their references to West pagination) may do now. PUBLIC DOMAIN CITATIONS WOULD BRING PUBLISHER COMPETITION, WHICH WOULD ENSURE LOWER-COST FEDERAL CASE LAW Many of the sole practitioners and smaller law firms in this community simply cannot afford to purchase all of the expensive West- published federal reporters or CD-ROMs, or the alternative Lexis or Westlaw. They use our law library, although it is a great inconvenience to those who must drive long distances to reach us. A public domain citation system would create a market for other publishers to also publish federal cases in various formats and at lower prices. There is presently no market for competing publishers who are unable to pay West's prohibitive pagination licensing fee. Attorneys and other researchers are not willing to purchase publications that cannot offer the mandatory West pagination, required by current federal citation rules. In effect, current federal citation rules allow West to enjoy a monopoly over the publication of federal case law. The introduction of a public domain citation system would encourage other publishers to enter the market and publish federal court decisions because they would no longer need the costly references to West pagination. Such competition would inevitably drive down the cost of federal case law to the public. The adoption of a public domain citation system would greatly benefit members of the bar and the larger public. I urge you to adopt the ABA recommendation for a public domain citation system for federal court decisions. Susan Lewis-Somers slewis@willamette.edu J.W. Long Law Library (503) 370-6386 Willamette University (503) 375-5426 (fax) 245 Winter Street SE http://www.willamette.edu/-slewis/ Salem, OR 97301-3922