SHEPARD'S STATEMENT TO THE JUDICIAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMITTEE ON AUTOMATION AND TECHNOLOGY Thank you for the opportunity to make a statement concerning the proposal for development of a nonproprietary legal citation system. Shepard's supports the goal of improving access to legal information. For more than 120 years, Shepard's has pursued this goal by creating products which compile and track essentially every citation to every court decision published in the United States. Over the past 120 years of processing citation information, Shepard's has gained considerable experience and developed expertise in legal citations. Shepard's does not see itself as the arbiter of citation practices. Rather, Shepard's takes the citations world as it is and seeks to make it more understandable. Shepard's believes that it is the prerogative of the courts to determine the form in which cases may be cited in briefs or legal memoranda submitted to them or in opinions which they issue. Moreover, it is the right of information providers to publish case reports under any system of organization they choose, to create their own proprietary system of citation and to provide parallel citations to any other system of reports in which the same cases can be found. Without signifying either approval or disapproval, Shepard's will reflect in its publications any new citation formats which emerge and in which the marketplace demonstrates a sufficient interest. Shepard's is not advocating that new citation formats be implemented in either a uniform or in an ad hoc manner. Shepard's has worked with various organizations to ensure that any new citation conventions proposed by such groups are technically sound and intelligible and that any perceived need for the creation of new public domain citations systems is balanced against the cost of providing such new systems. We hope you will find our experience and observations helpful in the development of a position on this important issue. As new citation formats are adopted, Shepard's has and will continue to incorporate these changes into its citator product lines in the most useable and practical format. A number of years ago the legal community began using opinions that were available only in slip opinion format and that did not yet have an assigned volume, reporter and page citation. Shepard's incorporated docket number citations into our product line to facilitate the use of citation information by the legal community. An example of how Shepard's has shown slip opinion citations is shown in Attachment A. More recently. the issue of vendor neutral citations has arisen. Louisiana was the first jurisdiction to adopted a new citation format and Shepard's has incorporated this citation into its citation coverage. An example of Shepard's coverage for Louisiana citations is included as Attachment B. Shepard's is also planning and working toward the coverage of the alternative South Dakota citation. Shepard's is willing to assist the Committee on Automation and Technology in any way the committee feels is appropriate. Shepard's has considerable expertise and experience in citation processing that it is willing to share with the committee.