I understand what Jerry is saying, but I have frequently heard people
from West say that one of the reasons that Westlaw is better than Lexis
is because the headnotes tend to use more standardized language than
opinion do which should improve retrieval when a judge uses different
language than other judges and the searchers use. Isn't that purpose
defeated when West lifts the "creative" phraseology of a particular judge
from the opinion and puts it in the headnote? Wouldn't that purpose of
the headnotes be enhanced if West's editors exercised more of their own
expression in writing the headnotes to cover the substance of what a
segment of an opinion said instead of using sound bites from the opinion
itself?
Mary Brandt Jensen University of Mississippi
Director of the Law Library University, MS 38677
Assistant Professor of Law mjensen@sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu
On Wed, 20 Dec 1995, Jerry Stephens wrote:
> Scott:
>
> RE: In re Thinking Machines Corp., 67 F3d 1021
>
> Your query about the headnotes assigned to this opinion
> generates a real decisive response: there's both more and
> less to this writing that you might first believe.
>
> Look to the author of the opinion. That's the key to your
> query. Judge Selya of the 1st Circuit is one of the more
> creative writers on the federal courts today. Phraseology
> such as legislation not created in a vacuum and singing a
> tune the way the courts want are typical of Judge Selya.
>
> And, surprisingly, this opinion DOES NOT reflect Judge Selya
> at his best.
>
> About four years ago, several of us creative writers in
> Oklahoma City had a brief written conversation with Judge
> Selya about his opinion style. One phrase in particular had
> generated a great deal of discussion. In a 1990
> opinion--United States v. Ortiz-Alarcon 917 F2d 651--Judge
> Selya used the phrase "more cry than wool".
>
> In answering our query, Judge Selya said that phrase was one
> that he had learned early in life. He also said that he used
> occasion variants, such as "more bleat than wool".
>
> So, in short, don't look to West Publishing Company editors.
> They're simply adding to the headnotes the text (and
> language) of the original opinion writer. Look to the author
> of the opinion.
>
> One suggestion here, and you've apparently begun to do some
> of that already. The frequent reader of judicial opinions
> can come up with many examples of creative writing. Judge
> Selya is only of
> the better writers in this regard.
>
> Jerry E. Stephens
> U.S. Court of Appeals
> Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:03 PST