TENER & CALLAHAN, P.C.
                   8330 Boone Boulevard, Suite 401
                     Vienna, Virginia 22182-2624

                                   March 14, 1997 

Via Facsimile (202) 273-1555 

Judicial Conference of the United States 
Committee on Automation and Technology 
Appellate Court and Circuit Administration Division 
ATTN: ABA Citation Resolution, Suite 4-512 
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts 
Washington, D.C. 20544 
 
Re: ABA Uniform Citation Proposal Published at 62 Fed. Reg. 8037 
    (Feb. 21, 1997) 
 
Members of the Committee: 
 
     I am an attorney practicing business and intellectual property  
law in Virginia in a two-attorney firm. Most of my clients are small 
or medium-sized companies. 
 
     One of the largest expenses facing my firm is the cost of legal 
research materials. The cost of printed publications, and the office 
space to store them, is prohibitive to our firm for large bodies of 
law, such as annotated codes and reported cases. With only two 
attorneys to share the expense, it is not feasible for us to maintain 
a large print library of federal and state statutes and case law. 
 
     The major on-line legal research databases are simply too 
expensive for me to use for most of my clients' projects. The cost of 
the on-line research services can add so much that the project cost 
exceeds the amount at stake or what, in my opinion, is a reasonable 
charge for the research project. 
 
     As a result, for research into statutes and case law, I rely 
primarily on CD ROM technology, where charges are on a monthly or 
annual basis, rather than a time of usage basis. Several alternatives 
are available at prices we can afford. 
 
     It is quite disturbing, however, that I cannot provide the 
correct (and in many cases required) citations to reported cases from 
affordable CD ROM databases. Reported cases are public domain 
documents created at taxpayer expense. In fairness to my clients and 
to clients of attorneys everywhere in the United States, I believe a 
page or paragraph numbering system should be made available to all so 
that competition can exist as to official citations, reducing the 
cost of researching public documents. My review of the ABA proposal 
for uniform citation leads me to conclude that the paragraph 
numbering system proposed would accomplish this result. 
 
     In this day of pervasive word processing and electronic 
publishing, I find it hard to believe that including paragraph 
numbers would add a noticeable burden of time or expense to the 
courts in creating their opinions. 
 
     Accordingly, I encourage the Committee to implement the ABA 
proposal for uniform citation for all federal courts. 
 
                                   Sincerely, 
 
                                   Ralph M. Tener