Subject: Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 11:12:00 -0500 0 From: "Laura N. Gasaway" To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov JUDICIAL CONFERENCE SHOULD ADOPT THE CITATION FORM RECOMMENDED BY THE ABA In my almost 30 years as a law librarian, professor and teacher of legal research, I have become increasingly concerned about the system of citations used in this country. I believe it is extremely important to have public domain citations for federal court decisions. It has long been a concern that West Publishing Company claims copyright in citations for federal court reports. Since only West publishes all of the Federal District Court opinions, it is a de facto official publication although not published by the Government Printing Office. In order to cite to those opinions, one must use the West citation, including pinpoint pagination. Claiming proprietary rights in those citations is tantamount to removing from the public something that the public has funded -- the judges, their staffs and the writing of those opinions. Wests compilation is cophrightable, but their citations should be public domain. The proposed citation form is both format and vendor neutral. Only the largest law libraries will be able to maintain subscriptions to various editions of court reports published by different publishers and in all available formats. Practicing lawyers are much more likely to have access to only one source, and the ABA proposal will end the problems of parallel citations, etc. Further, having paragraphs numbered will benefit all legal researchers. Even with headnotes, one may have to review several pages to locate the exact material needed. Numbering the paragraphs will permit indexing to smaller portions of documents which is in itself valuable for researchers. COSTS AND BENEFITS ON COURTS, THE BAR, THE PUBLIC I believe it is essential that citations be restored to the public domain. It will increase competition among publishers since more of them will be able to enter the market without having to pay a license fee for what should be public domain citation data. This will benefit the public by increasing the number of published sources for materials to appeal to different types of users; publishers will be encouraged to be more competitive on the basis of price as well as on the basis of special features their court reports will offer. Thus, the public should care deeply about this matter. Additionally, federal proposed system of citation creates the uniformity needed since neither the format of the material nor the publisher will matter. * * * Laura N. Gasaway Phone: 919-962-1049 Director of the Law Library & Professor of Law Fax: 919-962-1193 CB # 3385 University of North Carolina e-mail: laura_gasaway@unc.edu Chapel Hill, NC 27599