Subject: Public Domain Citations Comment
Date:    Sat, 8 Mar 1997 00:18:07 -0700 (MST)
From:    sgb@losgb.com (SHELDON G. BARDACH)
To:      citation@teo.uscourts.gov

To the Subcommittee on Automation and Technology

Your Honors:

     Adoption of a public citation system as recommended by the 
American Bar Association is needed both to end the West monopoly on 
court citations, and also to provide a more modern form of citation 
that would work better with the Internet and other forms of 
electronic publishing.

     The adoption of a standard form of citation that would use the 
name of the case, the year, the court of jurisdiction, a sequential 
number for the opinion, and a paragraph number for the text would. 
The main difference between this and the West Publishing citation 
would simply be that the court would number its opinions and the 
paragraphs within the opinion, so it would not have to rely upon the 
West volume and page numbers. This would permit the citation to be 
available the instant the opinion was released from the court, and to 
be used by any publisher, and in any format. The advantage of 
paragraph numbering is that it permits precise references to text, 
regardless of the publisher, the fonts used, or the format in which 
the information is displayed. This system is as old as the Bible, 
which itself uses a system of paragraph numbers. Paragraph numbering 
is also used by lawyers to identify the text in court pleadings.

     It is certainly inappropriate for a private entity (West 
Publishing) to "own" citations to government documents. The claim, if 
upheld, would be tantamount to a gift of public funds (property) to a 
private concern.

     Ordinary citizens care about access to court opinions. There are 
certainly great benefits in the public having better access to legal 
information. The courts should do a better job making court 
information available to taxpayers, who are expected to obey the law. 
The courts should make all federal court opinions available on the 
Internet, with citations that will permit the public to uniquely 
identify and cite an opinion. We benefit from better access to the 
text of court opinions: as citizens, students, researchers, business 
persons, etc.

     A less monopolistic system for legal citations is likely to 
increase competition among legal publishers, and lower prices for 
consumers. Federal, state, and local governments are huge consumers 
of high priced legal information, and that taxpayers will benefit 
from more competition for legal information. 

     It is sincerely hoped that the public citation system, as 
recommended by the American Bar Association will be adopted.

                                   Sincerely,

                                   Sheldon G. Bardach
                                   Attorney at Law
                                   11755 Wilshire Boulevard
                                   Suite 1450
                                   Los Angeles, CA