Subject: ABA Citation Resolution Date: 14 Mar 1997 09:57:16 U From: "Patricia B. Fry" To: "Admin. Office" OFFICE MEMO Subject: ABA Citation Resolution Time: 9:33 AM Date: 3/14/97 I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to adopt the form of official citation recommended by the American Bar Association. As a member of the ABA Special Committee on Citation, I studied the need for medium neutral citations and the costs of such a decision. I am convinced of the following: 1. It is essential for the courts to adopt citation protocols which are medium neutral. There can be no question that the courts and those who use them must be able to use non-paper-based research materials as freely as they now use paper-based research materials. Yet existing citation conventions, i.e. systems such as that described in the Harvard Blue Book, are useful only for paper-based systems. The ABA resolution recommends a citation convention which is medium neutral. [It is akin to the chapter and verse system used for citation to Biblical references -- a citation system adapted both to the scrolls used for centuries and the bound volumes which came into use after the printing press. As was true in the era of scrolls, it is true in the emerging era of non-paper-based reference materials that book and page references are not only awkward, they do not permit accurate citation.] 2. The citation method should refer to the original source, the opinion of the court which rendered it, and pinpoint citations should be to the paragraph of the opinion. Both are more accurate than the paper-based system of citing to book and page. 3. The system recommended by the ABA is useful to those who will continue to use paper-based systems and thus minimizes any necessity of forcing anyone to adapt to the new citation systems. It permits natural evolution rather than imposed revolution. 4. The ABA recommendations do not impose unreasonable costs on the paper-based publishers but do permit entry into the field of publishing legal publications by non-paper-based publishers, thus increasing competition. 5. The costs of adapting judicial resources to the new system are relatively minimal, both in terms of training and of equipment. Reports on the costs experienced in courts which have adopted medium- neutral citations indicate they are minimal. The creation or purchase of paragraph numbering software, and a relatively brief period of training for some clerks, appear to be the primary costs. Informal conversations with the chief clerk of the North Dakota Supreme Court, for example, indicate that the transition was fairly painless and simple. Informal conversations with the members of the North Dakota Supreme Court, both those which will use books throughout their careers and those dwho have used electronic materials, indicates they have found the new system useful and beneficial. 6. Adoption of medium neutral citation systems is extremely beneficial to members of the legal profession. It has become impossible for most law firms, whether of medium or small size or in medium to small towns, to maintain complete legal libraries. In many towns, firms have combined resources and established joint libraries in an effort to cope with the constantly rising costs of maintaining sufficient resources for their needs. Many lawyers lack access to all but the most basic materials. Experience in those states which have adopted medium-neutral citation systems shows [1] a decline in the cost of reference materials and [2] a pronounced rise in the use of such resources by members of the bar, and particularly by smaller firms and those in smaller towns. 7. Any citation system adopted should be reasonably uniform across the Nation. The legal profession crosses state lines in its work to an increasing degree today, and it may be assumed that this situation will accelerate. Widely differing citation conventions create barriers to the ability of members of the profession to serve all of their clients' needs. It is preferable for the same system to be used by all of the federal courts. Thank you for furnishing me with the opportunity to submit these comments to the Administrative Courts. Patricia Brumfield Fry Professor of Law [Member, ABA Special Committee on Citation) University of North Dakota School of Law Grand Forks, ND 58202 phone: 701-777-2223 fax: 701-777-2217 email: pat.fry@thor.law.und.nodak.edu