>From 8:50 to 2 on Thursday, April 3 in the US Courthouse, 4th and
Constitution in DC, the Committee on Automation and Technology of the US
Judicial Conference is holding a public hearing concerning the adoption of
the ABA-endorsed new citation format by the federal courts.
At 2:30 on April 3, AALP, Consumer Project on Technology, Union for the
Public Domain and others are sponsoring a press conference at the National
Press Club, 14 and F, NW.
Please attend these events if you can. Please alert your press contacts to
these events.
Federal District Judge Edward Nottingham of Denver is presiding at the
hearing; also with him will be Judge Richard Nygaard of the 3rd Circuit,
Judge James Robertson of the DC District Court, Judge Roger Strand of the
AZ District Court, Judge Franklin Waters of the AR District Court and Judge
Paul Barbadaro of the NH District Ct.
Testifying will be represenatives of U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust
Division, ABA Special Committee on Citations, ABA, Shepards, Consumer
Project on Technology, Association for Computing--US Public Policy
Committee, Union For the Public Domain, West Group, AALL, AALP, Hyperlaw,
Geronimo Publishing and Cleveland Thornton, an attorney in DC.
Over 500 public comments were submitted to the federal courts concerning
this matter and 99% of them support a new citation format. They are from
almost every state in the union and even from foreign court systems (Canada
and South Africa); from students, bar associations, practicing lawyers,
reporters, publishers, associations, government agencies and individual
government employees, ACLU and individual taxpayers, etc. It is very
interesting and moving to read them. Many of them are available online at
www.hyperlaw.com or www.cptech.org.
Over 400 judges and other judicial employees answered a questionnaire or
submitted comments and about 95% of these comments oppose a new citation
format. These comments are posted at two web sites: www.hyperlaw.com and
www.cptech.org
A final decision on whether the federal courts adopt the new citation
format will be made at the September 22nd meeting of the U.S. Judicial
Conference which is chaired by the Chief Justice and has 2 judges from
every circuit on it.
Eleanor J. Lewis, AALP, 282 N. Washington Street, Falls Church, VA
22046-4518
phone 301/652-3453 fax 301/652-2970
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:32 PST