SUBJECT: West citation system

DATE:    Mon, 10 Mar 1997

FROM:    Joe Carlton

TO:      citation@teo.uscourts.gov

Hello:

     I am an attorney and a state legislator from Maine. I recently 
chaired the Legislative Committee on Information and Technology, 
which concluded that it is in the public interest that all 
legislative information be made available on the Internet. I 
sponsored a bill requiring that, among other things, all Maine 
statutes be so published. Our State Supreme Court has recently 
decided to prospectively publish all its opinions on the Internet.

     West's monopoly has led to high prices for lawyers and others 
who need legal information and made this essential knowledge less 
available to the general public. In the case of statutes, I was 
amazed to find that all West has to do to obtain our statutes is to 
contact our Legislative offices and obtain a disk. It adds a little 
value by adding annotations and a (terrible) index, and charges 
outrageous prices for this information.

     I am all in favor of any proposal to break West's de facto 
monopoly on legal information.

Rep. Joseph Carleton
PO Box 369
Wells, Maine 04090
207-646-8341