Subject: ABA Citation Resolution 
   Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 14:18:22 -0500 (EST) 
   From: BOYDJOE@aol.com 
     To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov 
 
14 March 1997 
 
Appellate Court and Circuit Administration Division 
ATTN: ABA Citation Resolution 
Suite 4-512 
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts 
Washington, D.C. 20544 
 
Internet address: citation@ao.uscourts.gov 
 
Greetings: 
 
     I hereby submit the following statement in response to the 
request of the federal judiciary for public comments on the ABA 
Citation Resolution. 
 
     I am a member of the Bar of Tennessee, admitted to practice in 
all levels of both the Tennessee and federal judicial system, 
including the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the 
United States Supreme Court. I was admitted to practice before the 
latter on 25 October 1965. I have practiced law since my admission to 
the bar in 1956, after graduation from Vanderbilt Law School. My 
practice over the years consisted of a general civil practice, with a 
substantial amount of criminal defense work, and a short time as a 
District Attorney General. In addition, I have served as the Chief 
Legal Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and 
Mental Retardation. During all of this time I have been active in the 
work of the Tennessee Bar Association, and have done some committee 
work in the American Bar Association. 
 
     I served as a adjunct faculty member at Dyersburg State 
Community College for 17 years, teaching legal courses, including 
legal research. 
 
     This background is furnished to let you know that I do not 
approach this citation topic in a hasty or frivolous manner. As one 
of the first lawyers in Tennessee to use a computer in my law 
practice, I feel I have had substantial experience in the use of 
computers to make the practice of law more efficient and of greater 
service to the public. 
 
     With the advent of the internet and its accompanying e-mail, a 
whole new vista has opened for legal research. As an example, the 
Tennessee Bar Association now has an internet site and a service 
whereby the lawyers who subscribe for this service can obtain copies 
of the opinions of the various Tennessee appellate courts ON THE DAY 
THEY ARE RELEASED. The clerks of the appellate courts release the 
opinions in an electronic format, and the TBA then puts the heading 
and the first paragraph of each opinion on the internet. Any lawyer 
who desires can obtain this service, whether a subscriber to the 
TBA's service or not. A method is provided whereby any lawyer who is 
a subscriber to the service can check a box, and the full opinion 
will be e-mailed in about ten minutes. For this service the lawyers 
pay $35.00 per year. 
 
     The only drawback to this distribution system is that there is 
no permanent citation for the opinions, inasmuch as the courts have 
not in the past had any method of referring to the cases except by 
date of release and the case number, a very unsatisfactory method. 
Using the ABA's method, the citation would be in a standardized 
format for the entire country, and THE PERMANENT CITATION WOULD BE 
ASSIGNED AT THE MOMENT OF RELEASE OF THE OPINION. In addition, the 
paragraphs would be automatically numbered, thus eliminating the 
necessity to have any standardized pagination for reference purposes. 
An additional advantage is that the year of the opinion is an 
integral part of the citation. 
 
     The present method of assigning citations by a private company 
is completely unsatisfactory in today's electronic environment, for 
the citation depends on a publishing schedule rather than any 
rational basis, and does not come out until several weeks have 
elapsed. 
 
     To me, this proposed citation system is an opportunity for the 
federal courts to better serve the public and the legal profession by 
making the opinions available with a permanent citation at a very 
minimal cost. It should be obvious that the electronic format is the 
state of the art, and will soon be the universally accepted method. 
This citation proposal will enable the users to have the permanent 
citation from the beginning, without having to purchase expensive 
books. 
 
     Thank you for the opportunity to present these views. 
 
Joseph M. Boyd, Jr., J.D. 
152 Jefferson Square 
Nashville, TN 37215-3728 
615-386-3134 
BOYDJOE@aol.com