Major Revision to the NJ Court Rules: Round II with Hon. Sylvia B. Pressler
By Mary Ellen Kaas, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP
The Honorable Sylvia Pressler and Gann Law Books presented the second part of the overview of the major revisions of the comments in the Rules Governing the Courts in the State of New Jersey commenced in the 2006 edition and completed in the 2007 edition at a Gann sponsored lunch for NJLLA members at the Roseland Prudential campus on Thursday, October 5, 2006.
Before introducing Judge Pressler, editor Joe Finnin of Gann summarized the major changes, including the complete reorganization of the commentary, addition of analysis to each comment, streamlined rule histories, easier navigation, and reduced size of the volume for ease of use in the courtroom, with non-essential historical and encyclopedic material moved to the Online Edition.
Judge Pressler said the original version of the annotations had become unwieldy, and she promised Gann that she would rewrite them once she retired. She said that the book is now organized in a more orderly fashion and it now more closely resembles a treatise.
The judge explained that the search function in the online version is very useful because the index in the print version has not yet been revised. Gann says that Indexing software produces references to page numbers rather than to rule numbers, so this indexing process will take some time. However, users can now search the online version for free even if they do not subscribe to the online rules, find the sections they need, and then refer to the print version for the full text of the rule and comment.
Michael Protzel, president of Gann, offered to expedite the online subscription process for firms with large numbers of subscribers. Instead of matching each subscriber name with the unique code in the back of each book, librarians can provide Gann with a list of users and their e-mail addresses. This system should be automated within the next few years so that librarians can easily administer their accounts as attorneys arrive and depart.
Gann’s New Jersey Appellate Practice treatise should be available in six months or so and a treatise on matrimonial law is also in progress.
NJLLA members had ample time to network with old and new colleagues, and to speak with Judge Pressler and the affable Gann representatives.