January 26, 1996

MEMORANDUM

TO:    State Chief Justices

FROM:  ABA Special Committee on Citation Issues

RE:    Invitation to Submit Comments

     At the annual meeting of the American Bar Association in August, 
1995, the Board of Governors created a Special Committee on Citation 
Issues.  The work of this committee is described in the attached 
summary.

     The committee is inviting the submission of comments and 
recommendations on citation issues from all interested entities.  We 
welcome submissions from the judiciary.

J.D. Fleming, Jr.
Chair

                              EXHIBIT D

                    CONFERENCE OF CHIEF JUSTICES

                            RESOLUTION IX

           Development by the Conference of Protocols for
                          Citation Systems

     WHEREAS, the state courts in each state have the primary 
responsibility to determine the manner in which they will publish and 
disseminate the official opinions of each of their courts; and

     WHEREAS, the publication of such opinions must reflect 
technological change so that the public and legal community can be 
afforded fair access to such opinions; and

     WHEREAS, the American Bar Association has undertaken to adopt 
recommendations for uniform citation conventions after a study and 
recommendation by an ABA committee; and

     WHEREAS, the ABA study did not include or involve consultation 
with the Conference of Chief Justices prior to the issuance of that 
committee report; and

     WHEREAS, the report of the committee inadequately addresses the 
perceived problems;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that:

     * it is appropriate for state courts to plan for improvements in 
state citation systems that will recognize the importance of the 
electronic media and establish a level playing field between print 
and electronic reporting of state court decisions;

     * it is premature to adopt any particular plan for change in 
prevailing citation systems before the Conference has further 
opportunity to obtain reliable answers about the manner in which any 
changed system would operate and the costs that such a changed system 
would entail;

     * the Conference should undertake its own study, assisted by the 
National Center for State Courts, to consider various ways of 
adapting to electronic dissemination of state court opinions with a 
view toward developing a series of protocols that might provide an 
acceptable national and uniform model for each of the state courts to 
consider, adopt or modify in light of the needs of the courts of that 
particular state.

                              EXHIBIT C

     Proposed by the Committee on ABA Citation Issues and the Board 
of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices in Nashville, 
Tennessee, at the Forty-eighth Annual Meeting, on August 1, 1996.