Re the new Federal Appendix volume:
I did a FIND command on Westlaw for a cite in the first volume and found
the decision; I assume that all cases that will be in Federal Appendix will
also be found on Westlaw.
My groaning shelves are having enough troubles housing F. Supp and F3d
volumes, which are each coming out almost weekly now. I don't have the
space for additional volumes containing cases of questionable precedential
value.
Re the ALR Index and Table of Laws, Rules and Regulations.
Wednesday last week was definitely NOT a good day for me to leaf through
the revised volumes I received. I held off posting on this subject, since
such a post would be inappropriate considering the disaster last week;
certainly my comments even now are of very little import in relation to
such a horror.
About 2 years ago I received a revised volume for the ALR Index, containing
entries for T -Z and tables of statutes, rules, etc.
Only 2 years later (and maybe not even that) I receive 2 revised volumes
breaking the previous edition out into the T-Z volume and the tables
volume, at a cost to my firm of $148.
I decided to leaf through the new tables volume and was not especially
happy at what I found.
At the end of the listings for citations to the CFR, there was an entry for
51 CFR. (new title to me). I looked the citation up in the ALR article, and
indeed the article had cited 51 Fed Reg. I will say, though, that at first
glance the federal tables look pretty good. It's just that the 51 CFR cite
did jump out at me (and should have struck the ALR editors, too).
I then started examining the Illinois section. Now most Illinois statutes
are cited to either ILCS (the current codification) or its predecessor, Ill
Rev Stat. A number of ALR articles cite to statutes by name rather than to
their codification, so one can seriously expect that there would be a fair
number of different headings in the tables.
However, the table lists the statutes under a wealth of headings:
for ILCS (Illinois Compiled Statutes) the citations can be found under
heading formats as diverse as Ill Comp Stat, Ill Comp Stat Ann, Ill Con
Stat, Ill Ann Stat, as well as under ILCS or Ill Comp Stat in the format
105 ILCS (probably the best way to organize headings for this
codification). However, there are many headings such as 32 ILCS, 38 ILCS,
48 ILCS, 68 ILCS, 95 1/2 ILCS, etc., which are clearly citations to
statutes in the previous codification, Ill Rev. Stats.
Under the heading Ill Comp Stat there is a citation to an Indiana statute.
The citations under the heading Ill Rev Stat look, at first sight anyway,
quite plausible. But many statutes under the former codification are found
under headings such as Ill Rev Stat 1985, Ill Stat Ann, Ill Stat, SHA,
Smith-Hurd Stats, etc.
Much of this inconsistency derives, of course, from inconsistency in
citation form used in the ALR articles themselves. Clearly ALR editors did
not insist on any kind of bluebook style manual over the years. Some of the
articles do indeed have erroneous cites, citing to the wrong codification.
I took a quick look at the tables for some other states, and many tables DO
look fairly consistent; Illinois may indeed be one of the worst.
Still, a researcher using the tables for Illinois laws would be hard
pressed to find with any ease a particular statute.
Of course I don't expect total consistency in these tables, but I would
expect to have found SOME effort to normalize the headings.
Now this volume of tables certainly must have been produced using a
computerized citation extraction program, and we can expect the computer to
make some mistakes.
My problem is that nobody seems to have taken the trouble to review the
results and do anything to normalize the citations.
But the kicker is:
The previous edition has most of the same problems, and as far as I can
remember, nobody seems to have noticed or commented on law-lib.
If it is a case where nobody notices (especially researchers), then maybe
nobody bothers using these tables.
In which case, maybe the tables should not have been published in the first
place.
FRANK DRAKE
Arnstein & Lehr
Chicago
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