Alternative Legal Citation Forms

In federal and most state courts, legal cases are cited by volume number of the official reporter, name of the reporter, and page number. (For example, 32 F.2d 1.) However, to determine the proper volume and page number, a party must have access to the official reporter, and most of these are copyrighted by private companies.

With the growth of the internet, CD roms, and other electronic media, the cost of distributing cases has fallen tremendously. However, a party cannot cite a case distributed in an alterntive media without citing the copyrighted "official" volume number and pagination.

Many people have suggested an alternative citation format, under which a party could cite to the case name, year, docket number, and paragraph number. This would allow parties to cite to a case regardless of the form in which it was distributed.

The federal judicial center considered and rejected such a proposal. The following discussion centers on the costs and benefits of this new proposed standard.

Date sent: Fri, 25 Jul 1997

The current citation format mandated by all appellate courts gives monopoly power to West and other legal publishers. There is a growing movement to replace this citation format with one that is not dependent on any publisher. For example, jump cites in cases could be cited by case name, year, docket number, and paragraph number. This would enable lawyers to obtain cases from the internet, slip opinions, etc., and cite them directly, even if the cases did not contain the official pagination.

Much of our work as appellate lawyers involves legal research and writing. What do people think of this proposal?

The Federal Judicial Center has considered this proposal and rejected it, at least for now.

I just received an e-mail, enclosed below, stating that the Arizona Supreme Court is now considering this proposal.

[Text of e-mail re Arizona proposal:]

The Arizona Bar Association has petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to adopt the new citation format endorsed by the American Association of Law Libraries and theAmerican Bar Association. The Arizona Bar's petition is available at www.azbar.org/bar/ureport.htm and is in the newsroom section of the Bar's web site.

The report is extremely well written and reasoned and would persuade any reader why a new citation format is needed. This format is an immediately available permanent citation which is part of the case when it is released. It is a medium-neutral format and equally useful in print or electronic
products. It is vendor-neutral in that it is not owned by any vendor and does not refer to one vendor's products as the current West citation does. This citation refers to a specific decision; regardless of which legal research product you use, the citation will always be the same.

This format is in the public domain and not subject to a copyright by any entity. All publishers can use it, so for the first time all publishers start out equal and can create competing products. In Louisiana and South Dakota where such a system has been used for several years, with the use of the new citation format, price and product competition occurred. Prices for case reporters on CD dropped by over 50 percent in each state because for the first time there was genuine price and product competition.

The Arizona Supreme Court is accepting public comments on the matter through August 1, 1997. Comments MUST be send by snail mail to Clerk, Arizona Supreme Court, 1501 West Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007.

[Please note: it is now past the deadline. Do not send comment to the Supreme Court]

Original and six copies--yes 6--must be sent. Please do not let this requirement, however burdensome it is, stop you from responding. Arizona lawyers have worked long and hard on this effort. Please help them get a new citation format.

In your letter, note you are writing about Petition # 97-0001.

Address questions to Becky Weiner at the Arizona Bar, 602/340-7309 or at [weinerr at azbar.org - replace the 'at' with an @]

Date sent: Fri, 25 Jul 97

I am in favor of anything that breaks the monopolies of West, et al. Anyone who has had to pay their exhorbitant prices year after year, decade after decade, as we all have, should rejoice in this sort of news and back it 100%, especially since the new alternative appears to be simple and logical to use.

Date sent: Mon, 28 Jul 97

I think a uniform system is preferable for the reasons you stated as well as simplification without having to give multiple parallell citations.

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 97

The Louisiana Supreme Court adopted several years ago a requirement of a citation form that includes the docket number and page of the opinion of every case. The West publication number can be used, but it is not the formal citation. If a brief does not contain that docket number/page citation for a case, it is possible that the clerk will send the brief back because of improper formatting.

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 97

The Appellate Court Rules Committee of the Florida Bar looked at this issue 2 years ago by subcommittee. At the time, there were not enough lawyers and judges who were willing to do the work, and tackle West.

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 97

As long as there is a universally accepted form, I think it's a good idea. But I would resist any system which required attorneys to know the various rules of 50 states plus all federal districts, circuits, etc. The other problem is making the citation format readily available.

Date sent: 29 Jul 97

I, for one, have long supported such a move. It faces formidable opposition, as West has vigorously fought to protect its monopoly, and places large sums of money in useful places. It should be forbidden from giving awards to judges, or paying judges expenses at award ceremonies or educational events. These payments compromise the independence of the judiciary, and give the appearance of impropriety. Many federal judges have reaped large benefits from West, and have affected the stand of ACUS (American Conference of the U. S. Courts), which has opposed the idea of "publicly owned" citations of cases.

Date sent: 29 Jul 97

On the other hand, I assume that publishing and subsequent citation to cases in the West or other official reporter format doesn't cost me much in the way of tax dollars. Is there any proposal for who would pay to provide the "open" citation format to all? Would public law libraries (let alone the private ones) be required to replace their existing collections (providing more opportunities for West and the rest to make some money at public expense)? Or would access to the Internet (and consequent reliance on other arguably monopolistic powerhouses such as Microsoft, Intel, etc.) be required? Where would that put our constitutional guarantee of access to the legal system for those without the means or ability to have the expensive technological support system in place?

The above discussion was taken from the Appellate Law Discussion list and edited.

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