This report describes the purpose, aspirations, and components of the Federal Judicial Television Network (FJTN), which will reach judges and court staff members with a range of essential educational programs and other communications. The network will use formats that take full advantage of professional television production facilities and skills. The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) aspires to create a network with high-quality production values that provides valuable services to judges and court staff in all categories and provides broadcast quantities sufficient to sustain wide audience interest without disrupting daily courthouse activity.

The network's technical backbone consists of the following:

• the FJC's two broadcast studios: a fully-equipped, broadcast-quality sound stage and a state-of-the-art, automated instructor-presentation studio with a videoteleconference space;
• downlinks the Administrative Office (AO) is installing at court locations to reach the majority of judges and staff;
• transmitter and satellite services leased from existing providers; and
• a viewer response system, preferably the de facto standard of the existing Government Educational Television Network, which provides the broadest range of feedback possibilities and permits incoming data from viewing sites to be summarized and re-presented graphically to the viewing audience.

The FJC has several years of live broadcast and videotape production experience. The AO and Sentencing Commission also anticipate active use of the net­work. The FJC will provide both with program design and production assistance.

Updates the March 22, 1996 report on the federal district courts' responses to the 1993 amendments to FRCP 26. Tables describe courts' local rules, general orders, and CJRA plans by indicating which of five key provisions of Rule 26 are in effect.

Superseded by Implementation of Disclosure in United States District Courts, With Specific Attention to Courts' Responses to Selected Amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 (March 30, 1998).

A report that responds to a request by the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System for empirical information and analysis on whether the bankruptcy case venue statutes and procedural rule should be amended. The report presents the results of a 1996 survey of federal bankruptcy judges about Chapter 11 venue and judges' views of a proposal to amend 28 U.S.C. Section 1408 to prohibit corporate debtors from filing for relief in a district based solely on the debtor's state of incorporation or based solely on an earlier filing by a subsidiary in the district. The report also presents analyses of administrative and demographic characteristics of large public companies that emerged from Chapter 11 during 1994 and 1995.

At the request of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, the Center conducted a study of the discovery process, examining the extent to which discovery is used, the frequency and nature of problems in discovery, the impact of the 1993 amendments, and whether additional rule changes are needed. This is the report of that study. Submitted to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, for Consideration at its Meeting September 4-5, 1997.

Note: A revised version of this study is published at 39 Boston College Law Review 525 (May 1998) under the title An Empirical Study of Discovery and Disclosure Practice Under the 1993 Federal Rule Amendements.