March 12, 1997 ABA Citation Resolution Suite 4-512 Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Washington, DC 20544 ATTN: subcommittee of its Committee on Automation and Technology; Chair, Judge Edward Nottingham, District Court, CO Dear Judge Nottingham and Committee Members: On February 21, 1997 [62 Fed. Reg. 8037] the Judicial Conference's Committee on Automation and Technology requested comment on an August 1996 American Bar Association ABA) resolution made by its Special Committee on Citation Issues calling for state and federal courts to develop a standard citation system and recommending a format that could be used by state and federal courts. That resolution calls for courts to identify the citation on each decision at the time it is made available to the public. In particular, comments were specifically sought on two questions: (1) Whether the federal courts should adopt the form of official citation for court decisions recommended by the ABA resolution; and, (2) The costs and benefits such a decision would have on the courts, the bar, and the public. I have been admitted to practice since 1974 in good standing before the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas and since 1979 before the Supreme Court of the United States. I formerly was Executive Director of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1988 to 1994 and am currently Associate General Counsel at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. In addition to my official duties, however, I have devoted substantial personal time to evolving issues of law and technology and in particular have helped media centers in local high schools understand how to access legal information electronically. It is from this latter perspective that I particularly wish to commend the Committee for presenting these two questions for comment since I believe the courts can provide a substantial service to the nation's student population by providing easier, more reliable, and more cost-effective access to judicial decisions. This perspective causes me to clearly believe that the federal courts should adopt the form of citation recommended by the ABA. Thus, the remainder of my comments will be addressed to the second question, specifically to the costs and benefits to the nation's student population acquired by adoption of the ABA recommendation. I have provided assistance to teachers and media specialists in middle and high schools in Montgomery Country Maryland who wished to design curriculum to help students find pertinent legal materials on contemporary topics. For example, a popular topic involves student rights when the student is subject to locker searches. More exotic topics also arise from time to time such as copyright disputes among performing artists. It has always been fascinating to me to review the source material to which students have access. They seldom have books from West Publishing or Thomson and Reed-Elsevier. Usually, they have a collection of political science essays with abridged case reprints. Frequently, the case title and legal citation are incomplete. On occasion an enterprising student may have a horn book or a case book. If the student is particularly dedicated to the assignment, they may find more reliable materials in the public library, although not every public library has particularly well maintained cases even for the particular jurisdiction where the library is located. Since 1994, however, schools in Montgomery County have access to the Internet in their media centers. This has vastly improved the amount of original case materials to which students have school-based access but the material is not yet as uniform or reliable as a lawyer would insist upon. Nevertheless, it is far superior to what was routinely available a few scarce years ago. Students can now find Supreme Court cases through project Hermes and be fairly confident that their search has been effective. Several circuits now have a fairly good collection of on-line decisions. Nevertheless, for the average student (and probably the average citizen), finding case law reliably is elusive at best. This is true even if they know the caption of the particular case they wish to read. Given the great explosion in access to government information through the Internet, it is inappropriate for a private entity to claim a monopoly on access to government documents. Access usually involves accurate citation. Therefore, it is quite appropriate for the courts to adopt a uniform system that is independent of any publisher's page numbering rationale. Thank you for this opportunity to comment. Sincerely, William J. Olmstead 1525 Arbor View Road Wheaton, Maryland 20902-1406