Author: "John P. Joergensen" <jjoerg@crab.rutgers.edu> at -Internet
    Date: 3/12/97  11:00 AM
Priority: Normal
     BCC: CITATION at AO-OCPPO
      TO: citation@ao.uscourts.gov at -Internet
 Subject: Public Domain Legal Citations: Comment

     I write to urge the adoption by the Courts of the ABA's proposed 
uniform citation system.  As a legal librarian who practiced law for 
a small firm, I have first hand knowledge of the confusion and 
inequities that result from the current legal citation standards.  
The ABA's proposal is a simple, practical, and equitable solution to 
these problems.

     The cost of West reporters has made access to federal case 
opinions effectively unavailable to the general public.  In addition, 
there are many attorneys in this country, perhaps most attorneys, who 
work as solo practitioners, or for very small firms, for whom the 
purchase of the West reporters is an extreme financial burden.

     During the last two or three years, however, several respected 
universities, as well as the courts themselves, have made federal 
cases available over the Internet.  At this point, it is clear that 
these institutions are committed to these projects for the long term.  
As a result, a wealth of information is now available to the public.  
This is a real democratization of information which truly fulfills 
the promises of those promoting the "information superhighway".

     The problem, however, is that although the information is 
available, it cannot be effectively used.  Although the universities 
that are publishing cases are careful to do so only with the sanction 
and support of the court, and take pains to only publish the 
authorized text, the courts will not accept citations to those texts.  
Currently, they will only accept citations to the expensive, and 
therefore exclusive, West reporters.

     The ABA's proposed citation system solves this problem without 
creating the need for multiple citations.  It is a practical system 
that can be used with any version of a court's opinion, be it West's, 
the Internet, or even the court's own slip opinion.  The proposed 
system therefore makes all the versions of a court's opinion usable 
in a simple, practical way.

     For Supreme Court, the proposed system would have the additional 
advantage of eliminating the need for parallel citations, a 
significant advantage for all legal practitioners: including those 
who must read briefs cluttered with citations as well as those who 
write the briefs.

     The federal courts should also be mindful of their position as 
an example to their sister courts on the state level.  The advantages 
outlined above also apply to state jurisdictions.  The adoption of 
the ABA proposal by the federal courts would hopefully encourage the 
states to adopt uniform citations, making research and practice 
simpler, more effective, and far more inexpensive for the whole legal 
community and the American public.

                                   John P. Joergensen
                                   Reference/Circulation Librarian
                                   Rutgers University School of Law - 
                                     Camden
                                   5th & Penn Streets
                                   Camden, NJ 08102
                                   jjoerg@crab.rutgers.edu