[9782] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
New Public Citation Form: USCA 6th Cir & Louisiana
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Sugarman)
Fri Jan 21 08:21:07 1994
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 1994 13:36:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Alan Sugarman <sugarman@panix.com>
To: "Lynn Foster, UALR Law Library" <LCFOSTER@ualr.edu>
Cc: law-lib@ucdavis.edu, com-priv@psi.com, Govdoc-L!PSUVM.PSU.edu,
In-Reply-To: <940117153134.20769b@ualr.edu>
Appropos Lynn Foster's message re Louisiana's new parallel citation, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has adopted an
official parallel citation as of January 3, 1994. Here is our press
release on the topic.
FOR RELEASE IMMEDIATELY
HYPERLAW, INC.
HYPERLAW, INC. ANNOUNCES USE OF NEW SIXTH CIRCUIT FEDERAL
PARALLEL CITATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ADOPTS
NON-PROPRIETARY CITATION
January 20, 1994, New York - HyperLaw, Inc. announced today
that it fully supports the new non-proprietary parallel
citation implemented beginning January 3, 1994, by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
HyperLaw's President Alan D. Sugarman stated that the new
citation will be used in all HyperLaw CD-ROM products
including FEDERAL APPEALS ON DISC and UNITED STATES SUPREME
COURT ON DISC .
The Sixth Circuit stated:
"Electronic Citations. The electronic citation will assign
a court-generated, vendor neutral, reference number to
opinions at the time of their release. The electronic
citation is intended to avoid the proliferation of various
electronic citations developed by vendors and to provide a
common reference for all users of electronic and CD-ROM
systems. The electronic citation is considered to be a
parallel citation to the opinion in addition to the citation
in the published reporter series."
"The court encourages the use of the Sixth Circuit
electronic citation by bench and bar when citing cases to or
from the Sixth Circuit. While there will be no penalties
for not using the electronic citation, the court and the bar
will find it easier to retrieve cases from the various
electronic publishers when the citation is used."
"The format of the electronic citation system, which is
based on the recommendations of the Committee on Automation
and Technology of the Judicial Conference of the United
States is as follows: Jones v Smith, 1994 FED App. 1234P at
12 (6th Cir.)"
Associated with each electronic citation is a computer file
name, "94A1234P.06".
Although the Judicial Conference recently decided to not
adopt the citation system, the Sixth Circuit was permitted
to experiment with the citation. The Third Circuit uses a
similar notation but has yet to officially approve the
citation format, and by rule requires use of the West
Federal Reporter citation. HyperLaw had vigorously
supported the Judicial Conference official public domain
citation along with bar groups and other publishers,
principally Mead Data Central.
Sugarman noted that the Sixth Circuit announcement is highly
significant, and marks the beginning of public domain
citations for federal court opinions. Importantly, the
Sixth Circuit parallel citation includes a pin-point
citation by speciying an official page number. Pin-point
citation was not omitted fromt he final report of the
Judicial Conference subcommittee.
Sugarman noted that this new development raises important
issues:
Will the United States Supreme Court use the Sixth
Circuit electronic citation when referring to Sixth
Circuit decisions below. At present, when a Supreme
Court opinion or order refers to a federal opinion
below, it provides only the West Publishing Company
citation, and does not provide the name, docket number,
or date of the decision below.
What position on use of the Sixth Circuit electronic
citation will be taken by the Editors of THE BLUEBOOK,
compiled by the editors of the law reviews of Columbia,
Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Yale Law Review and the
MAROON BOOK compiled by the editors of the University
of Chicago Law Review.
Will West Publishing Company, which described the
citation scheme adopted by the Sixth Circuit as "a
disaster for the legal systems", include the new
citation, with internal pagination, on Westlaw and in
its Federal Reporter Series publications.
How will Mead Data Central which supported the
citation, implement the citation on Lexis?
HyperLaw's FEDERAL APPEALS ON DISC, first released in July,
1993, includes published decisions for 1993 from the twelve
federal circuit appellate courts of general jurisdiction -
the District of Columbia Circuit and the First through
Eleventh Circuits, but not the Federal Circuit. Also
included are unpublished decision from the First, Fourth,
Eighth and Tenth Circuits. The 1993 year-end CD-ROM
included nearly 10,000 1993 decisions fully searchable
utilizing Folio Views software published by Folio
Corporation, a subsidiary of Mead Data Central, Inc. A
"run-time" version of the software is included on the CD-
ROM. Also included on the recent CD-ROM is the United
States Code current to January 1992.
The product is available through a variety of annual
subscriptions plans. Subscribers may choose to receive
updates on a monthly ($1,000/ year) or quarterly ($650/
year) basis. Sole practitioners have a special reduced rate
of $450/year. New users may sample the product by
purchasing a single CD-ROM for $150, and apply that amount
toward a subscription.
For further information at the United States Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, contact Debra Nagle, Public
Information Officer at (513) 684-2681.
For product information, contact HyperLaw, Inc., P.O. Box
1176, New York, NY 10023; Information 212-787-2812; 800-
825-6521; Facsimile 212-496-4138
*****
For information concerning this release, contact:
Alan D. Sugarman
212-873-1371
Internet sugarman@panix.com, Compuserve 70461,2251.
releasejan201994
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On Mon, 17 Jan 1994, Lynn Foster, UALR Law Library wrote:
> On December 17, 1993, the Supreme Court of Louisiana issued an order
> requiring a "uniform public domain citation form" with a parallel citation
> to West's Southern Reporter, for all opinions and actions issued by the
> appellate courts of Louisiana after December 31. E.G.:
> Smith v. Jones, 93-2345 (La. App. 1 Cir. 7/15/94); 660 So. 2d 400.
> As you can see, the uniform public domain citation form consists of the
> "case name, docket number excluding letter, court abbreviation, and month,
> day and year of issue." The order further provides that "if a pinpoint
> public domain citation is needed, the page number designated by the court
> shall follow the docket number...."
> The court also states that opinions issued between Dec. 31, 1972 and Jan.
> 1, 1994, can have a parallel public domain citation following the So. 2d
> citation (but the parallel isn't required).
> Thanks to Carol Billings for sending me a copy of the order. Who's next?
>
> Lynn Foster
> lcfoster@ualr.edu
> 501-324-9975
