For those of you not in the Bay Area, I'm posting this article about
the ABA citations draft report.
San Francisco Daily Journal
March 20
By James Evans
A committee of the American Bar Association is recommending the
nationwide adoption of a universal legal citation standard that would
reduce conflict and confusion caused by the growth in electronic
distribution of court opinions.
The ABA's Special Committee on Citation Issues, which has been
studying the issue since last fall, said in a draft report released
Monday that all court jurisdictions should begin providing official
citations to rulings based on the year, the court, the sequential
number for the decision and numbered paragraphs.
The format-neutral system would allow opinions to be cited
regardless of source, whether in print or electronic form. Many
jurisdictions do not regard opinions as published until they have
appeared in print, a source of frustration as decisions have become
available faster through electronic dissemination.
There also is a growing fear of confusion as private vendors try
to circumvent widely-used proprietary citation systems, such as that
owned by West Publishing Co., by creating their own citations. A
California appellate court ruling, for example, can be cited in
numerous ways.
The draft recommendations call for a transition period during
which currently accepted citations would continue to be honored until
``electronic publications of case reports become generally available to
and commonly relied upon by courts and lawyers in the jurisdiction,
...''
When that transition period would end probably would be
determined by individual courts, said J.D. Fleming, a litigation
partner in Atlanta's Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan and chairman of the
ABA's Citation Issues Committee.
``It's too early to know how the recommendations will be
received, but I don't consider it a dramatic shift in the legal
profession,'' he said. ``It's an orderly evolution of things.''
Nearly everyone else, however, sees the ABA's move as the final
nail in the coffin of proprietary citations based on print
publications.
``This is a major step forward,'' said Rita Reusch, professor of
law and director of the law library at the University of Utah Law
School, and a member of the ABA committee. ``Clearly the committee is
recognizing where case law dissemination is headed. The old print-based
citation system doesn't work anymore. It's a very forward looking
document.''
Alan Sugarman, president of HyperLaw, Inc., a New York company
that provides federal court opinions on CD ROMs and a consistent critic
of copyrighted citation standards, said he was thrilled with the
committee's stance.
``It's very positive from my point of view,'' he said. ``The
committee seems to have analyzed the issues well. Some things need to
be looked at closer, but generally the ABA is heading in right
direction.
``I was holding my breath waiting for the report,'' he added.
``But I felt the committee members were genuinely interested in the
subject. None of them were there to kill the idea, and instead they
were very open minded.''
Brady Williamson, who represents West Publishing Co. as a partner
in Minneapolis' LaFollette & Sinnykin, said West, despite fighting
adoption of format-neutral citations in every state where they have
been proposed, including California, also praised the draft
recommendations.
Even though West, which recently announced that it was being
purchased by rival Thomson Publishing Co. for $3.4 billion, still was
evaluating the report, the company was pleased the committee recognized
a fundamental of legal research, that citations must work for both
print and electronic opinions, Williamson said.
``West's goal is to be sure that any citation system passes the
test of the market place,'' he said, adding that if in 10 years the new
citation system met the needs of the market, then West would welcome
it.
Edward W. Jessen, the reporter of decisions for the California
Supreme Court, which is expected to adopt the identical citation
standard recommended by the citations committee, said the ABA report
was consistent with the analysis of the court's own citations
committee.
The State Bar of California already has expressed support for a
format-neutral citation standard to be accepted statewide, and the high
court is expected to adopt the plan and implement it by Jan. 1.
The ABA committee action doesn't mean the battle for citations is
over. Ironically, a subcommittee of the ABA Intellectual Property Law
Section recently issued a report that opposed public domain citations
because they didn't identify the source of the opinion.
And West, joined now by Thomson, which previously supported
format-neutral citations, continues to fight against adoption of new
standards despite comments favoring the committee's recommendations.
But their struggle, said Sugarman, won't do any good. ``It will
backfire if [West and Thomson] oppose format-neutral citations,'' he
said. ``The more they oppose it, the more it will energize courts to
implement it.''
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