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In recent months (and only in recent months to my knowledge), West's has
stated that the system is unusable with their regional reporters. That was
not the
initial impression that I had from them.
The reason, they state, is that cases within the regional reporters are
arranged in order of importance. Those enunciating important principles of
law precede those that do not. This, they believe, is a substantial benefit
for
users.
Regards,
John Lederer
Chair, Tech Resource Committee, Wis. State bar
(but speaking for myself only)
At the October 1994 of the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries, a West
representative mentioned this same principle, "arranged in order of
importance" during a program on public domain citation systems. As an
audience member, I questioned this statement. In 15years as a law librarian,
I had never seen, heard, or read any such statement from West. It does not
appear in standard legal research text (although I will admit that I have
not done a systematic search). Why has West never mentioned this arrangement
principle before, I asked. The West representative had no response. If this
arrangement poses such a substantial benefit for users, why has it not been
used in promotional material?
Cheryl Nyberg
University of Illinois Law Library
cnyberg@law.uiuc.edu
A speaker from West
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