Subject: [Fwd: ABA Uniform Citation Proposal [62 Fed. Reg. 8037, 
         2/21/97]]
   Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 07:04:33 -0800
   From: "Wade B. Perry, Jr." <wperry@iar.net>
     To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov

Subject: ABA Uniform Citation Proposal [62 Fed. Reg. 8037, 2/21/97]]
   Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 22:36:18 -0800
   From: "Wade B. Perry, Jr." <wperry@iar.net>
     To: citation@ao.uscourts.gov

     I am an attorney in a private practice firm of 25 attorneys in 
Mobile, Alabama. I have practiced law for 25 years in Alabama, 
including 3 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorn There are probably 10 
attorneys in my firm who are exceedingly computer literate and share 
my views set out hereinbelow.

     I favor the ABA proposal for a number of reasons. First and 
foremost, it is my firml held conviction that public access to public 
documents should not be impeded in any In an age of electronic 
publishing, when the internet is growing geometrically, this means 
nothing less than making available instantaneous public access to 
court decisi via the internet and in a form requiring a minimum of 
user investment and a minimum utilization of paper resources. More 
fundamentally, this opinion grows out of a view that the free 
interchange of ideas is a paramount value in any age, and in a 
technologically advanced age, it calls for measures of the sort I 
advocate here.

     Moreover, while as a lawyer I suppose I have a vested interest 
in keeping this "powe of access to court decisions away from the 
general public so as to best protect the value of my law license, I 
believe we all benefit by the mass availability of this m fundamental 
tool of our trade. Members of the general public who vote for and 
elect state court judges as we do in Alabama ought to be able without 
undue obstacles to b able to search and review the written product of 
the candidate.

     Finally, even for a lawyer the economics of the matter cry out 
for a solution. Next rent (which includes the cost of space for 
library materials), the library is the largest expenditure in our 
firm's annual budget. With the advent of desktop computer our firm 
and CD ROM capability, a trip to the firm library is fast becoming a 
thing the past. The cost of West published CD ROM opinions is 
considerable, and even more expensive is the cost of computerized on-
line access to recent opinions not yet available in CD ROM format. 
Why not make available these opinions instantaneously in electronic 
form, with the rudimentary, yet functional, indexing scheme suggested 
in ABA proposal?

     I respectfully urge the adoption of a free public domain system 
of the type proposed the ABA plan referenced above.

Wade B. Perry, Jr.
P.O. Box 1988
Mobile, AL 36633
Phone: (334) 441-9238 or 432-7682
Fax:                     432-2800
e-mail: wperry@iar.net