Well, Eli, the fact is that for many many years the US Supreme Court has
had the slip opinion pagination and they do not wish to carry those
virtual page breaks, as you wish to call them, into the permanent bound
volumes. It is pretty hard to see the confusion engendered by using the
slip opinion page breaks for cross references and the US Page numbers for
everthing else. I am just having a hard time visualising a page for US
Reports with star pagination for the slip opinions etc.
Also, for the record, are you arguing:
A. I do not feel there is any need for a public domain vendor and medium
neutral citations, and, if one does go through over my opposition, I
prefer that virtual page numbers be used rather than paragraph numbers
inserted by the court.
Or are you saying:
B. I think we need a public domain vendor and medium neutral citation,
and I wish that it be based upon page, and not paragraph numbers.
I seem to see a lot of the A argument, and not a lot of B argument. For
the record, where do you stand. This is pretty important ... if I were
against any change in the present system, I would argue that if a change
were made, then the change be made to the least useful method. Then one
could argue that there are no benefits from changing the present system.
Alan Sugarman
HyperLaw
sugarman@panix.com
On Fri, 13 Jan 1995 Passlane@aol.com wrote:
> Sugarman wrote . . .
>
> >Of course, I note that had the slip opinion been paragraphed, not paginated,
> >there would be no ambiguity at all in the cross-reference, and, indeed,
> >delays in publication related to verification of cross-references would be
> >eliminated. In a sense, those that are so attached to page numbering are
> >in a sense urging the continuation of a practice that is not only
> >inefficient, but builds in delays in the ultimate release of the final
> >version. I see no virtue in this ... and I would suspect that inserting
> >paragraph numbers initially would save countless hours, just within the
> >Supreme Court, not to speak of the entire legal profession that needs to
> >putter around with these citations until the final citation appears.
>
> I fail to see where this argument really distinguishes between page numbers
> and paragraph numbers. If the slip opinion pagination was used as virtual
> pagination in later publications, there would be none of the delay you
> mention. Why then would paragraph numbers cause less delay?
>
> Eli Roth, Law Librarian
> Lincoln Law School of Sacramento
>
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