On Fri, 23 Dec 1994 Passlane@aol.com wrote:
> I agree with your main point, that virtual pages work, but disagree with your
> statement that they work exactly like paragraph numbers. You seem to
> preclude the idea that a revision could consist of the addition or deletion of
> entire paragraph numbers, thus requiring a renumbering of paragraphs (e.g.,
> Paragraph 1.1 or 1a). Obviously deletion of an entire paragraph would not be
> as burdensome to the citation system, although it could confusing to a reader
> wondering if the version of an opinion being consulted erroneously omitted a
> paragraph or misnumbered. For this reason, I support your ultimate solution
> of using the slip opinion pagination for virtual pagination.
There is of course still the possibility that the virtual page break is
located in the deleted paragraph. I used to support slip opinion
pagination but finally concluded, 20,000 opinions later that is was hard
justify a system that introduced page breaks in the middle of citations,
words, and paragraphs. Also the idea is to have the citation fixed when
the opinion is issued ... in some courts, the slip opinion is printed a
week after the manuscript opinion is issues, i.e., the Second Circuit.
So, practically, there are real problems. I guess we could have virtual
pages where the virtual page break also appeared at the beggining of a
paragraph and the virtual page would be roughly 2000 characters long.
The virtual page would contain several pargraphs, perhaps.
But what does that buy you. Why not just number every paragraph.
I suggest you look at the Sixth Circuit experiment with using the slip
opinon page number as a citation. What would we now find in a Lexis
version of the case? A Lexis "page" break, a West page break, and now a
slip opinion page break.
Alan Sugarman
HyperLaw
sugarman@panix.com
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