Keith Mack
Case reporters are print volumes that gather and publish court opinions in chronological order. They can be official or unofficial, but the text of the cases within the reporters is considered a primary source. Official reporters are governmentally approved publications that reproduce the reported cases within a given jurisdiction. Unofficial reporters may contain editorial additions, such as headnotes, which are brief summaries of specific points of law decided in a case. These headnotes are not considered legal authority and should not be cited. While case law reporters are generally organized chronologically, digests are multi-volume indexes organized by topic and key number classification systems. Legal treatises and hornbooks are secondary sources that provide in-depth treatments of legal areas.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Nature of case reporters | Court opinions gathered and published in chronological order in print volumes called case reporters or reporters |
| Official and unofficial case reporters | Official reporters are governmentally approved publications that reproduce reported cases within a given jurisdiction. Unofficial case reporters are published by commercial publishers. |
| Primary and secondary sources | Primary sources include laws, orders, decisions, rules, regulations, statutes, cases, and regulations. Secondary sources include law reviews, journal articles, legal encyclopedias, treatises, and law digests. |
| Headnotes | A headnote is a brief summary of a specific point of law decided in a case. They are not part of the decision and are not considered legal authority. |
| Series | Case reporters frequently have multiple series, which means the publisher restarted the volume numbering. |
| Case reporter examples | The Federal Reporter, Federal Supplement, Federal Appendix, North Eastern Reporter, United States Reports, Supreme Court Reporter, Lawyer's Edition Reporter, etc. |
Explore related products
![Madras Law Reporter; Reports of Cases, High Court of Madras. Edited by Spring Branson. [1876-77] 1877 [Leather Bound]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/617DLHXyzlL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
What You'll Learn
Case reporters are considered primary sources
Primary sources are laws, orders, decisions, rules, or regulations issued by a governmental entity or official from one of the branches of government. The entity or official may be a court, legislature, executive agency, president, or a state governor. Primary sources include constitutions, statutes, cases, and regulations. While case law reporters are generally organised chronologically, digests are multi-volume indexes to the law organised by topic and "key number" classification system.
Headnotes are a great research tool but are not considered legal authority and should never be cited. They are brief summaries of specific points of law decided in a case, written by a publisher's editors and appearing before the judicial opinion. Headnotes are generally one to two sentences long and act as a "Table of Contents" to the case. Online, the hyperlinked number found in each headnote will bring you to the point in the decision where the discussion of that issue appears. They provide research references to locate additional case law.
Commercially published reporters often contain editorial notes about each case, including short paragraphs with the brief facts of the case and its holding. These introductory paragraphs are helpful in that they allow readers to understand what the case is about without reading the entire case.
Writing Effective Law Case Notes: A Guide
You may want to see also
Explore related products
Official and unofficial case reporters
Case reporters are volumes that gather and publish court opinions in chronological order. They can be official or unofficial. Official reporters are governmentally approved publications that reproduce the reported cases within a given jurisdiction. Many states still publish their own reporters. The official reporter is the reporter that should be cited when submitting documents to the court in that jurisdiction.
Unofficial reporters, on the other hand, are published by commercial publishers and are generally considered non-authoritative. They may include editorial enhancements, such as headnotes, in addition to the text of the opinion. Headnotes are short summaries of different aspects or issues of a case and are written by the publisher's editors. They are useful as a research tool and for identifying the rules of law in the decision. However, they are not considered legal authority and should not be cited.
An example of an official case reporter is the United States Reports (U.S.), which is the official reporter for U.S. Supreme Court cases. Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.) and United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition (L. Ed., L. Ed. 2d) are unofficial reporters for the same jurisdiction, published by West and Lexis respectively.
At the state level, the Illinois Reports (Ill., Ill. 2d) are the official reporter for cases decided before July 1, 2011. Cases decided after that date are posted on the Illinois Courts website in the public domain. The North Eastern Reporter (N.E., N.E.2d, N.E.3d) is an unofficial reporter published by West that covers cases from multiple states.
In summary, official case reporters are government-approved publications that reproduce reported cases within a given jurisdiction and are considered authoritative. Unofficial case reporters are published by commercial entities and may include editorial enhancements, but they are not considered authoritative sources of law.
Writing Law Case Notes: A Step-by-Step Guide
You may want to see also
Explore related products
Headnotes and their use
A case reporter is considered a primary law source, except for any editorial additions in unofficial reporters such as headnotes. Official reporters are governmentally approved publications that reproduce the reported cases within a given jurisdiction.
Headnotes are a crucial aspect of legal research and practice, providing a concise summary of the key points of a court case. They are short, one- to two-sentence summaries of the different aspects and issues addressed in a case. Headnotes are typically written by the publisher's editors and appear before the judicial opinion. They are not part of the judicial opinion or the decision itself. Instead, they serve as an editorial enhancement, identifying the rules of law and the central issues and outcomes of the case.
The primary purpose of headnotes is to act as a research tool, aiding legal professionals, researchers, and students in quickly understanding the essential facts, issues, and rulings of a case. They are especially useful when dealing with a large volume of case law or when researching specific points of law. Headnotes help clarify important legal principles and make complex legal concepts more accessible. They are often numbered to facilitate quick reference and easy navigation to specific points within a case.
Headnotes are not considered legal authority and should not be cited as such. However, they are valuable for understanding judgments and navigating the vast body of case law. They help legal practitioners determine which cases are most relevant to their practice or research.
Online, headnotes may include hyperlinked numbers that direct readers to the specific portion of the decision where the discussed issue appears. This functionality further enhances the usefulness of headnotes as a research tool.
Writing Family Law Case Names: A Simple Guide
You may want to see also
Explore related products
Published and unpublished opinions
Case reporters are considered primary sources of law. They are court opinions gathered and published in chronological order in volumes called case reporters or simply reporters. While most cases are now available online, cases are still cited according to the print reporter system.
Not all cases are published in reporters. Court rules decide which cases can be published and used as legal precedent. Published cases are a mandatory authority for the court and lower courts in its jurisdiction.
All Supreme Court cases (both federal and state) are published. However, less than half of intermediate appellate opinions tend to be published. State trial court opinions are never published, and only a tiny fraction of federal trial (district) court opinions are published.
An unpublished case is not a binding authority, but it can be used as a persuasive authority. Unpublished cases are those that do not add anything new to the respective body of law. They are explicitly labelled as unpublished and do not have a reporter citation.
The Bluebook provides guidelines for citing unpublished cases. If an unpublished case is available in an electronic database, the citation includes the name of the case, docket number, court, and full date of the most recent disposition of the case. If an unpublished case is not available in an electronic database and is only available as a slip opinion, the citation is the same, except without the database identifier.
Writing Law Case Studies for CA Foundation Exam
You may want to see also
Explore related products
Primary and secondary sources
In the context of legal research, primary and secondary sources are two distinct categories of sources used to inform and support legal arguments. Primary sources are authoritative and carry more weight than secondary sources. They are the laws, rules, regulations, and case laws that govern a particular jurisdiction. Constitutions, statutes, cases, and regulations are all considered primary sources.
Case reporters are publications that compile and reproduce court opinions and judicial decisions. They can be either official or unofficial. Official case reporters are government-approved publications that reproduce the reported cases within a given jurisdiction. Many states in the US still publish their own official reporters, and these are the sources that should be cited when submitting documents to the courts in those jurisdictions.
Unofficial case reporters, on the other hand, are published by commercial entities and may include additional editorial content, such as headnotes and summaries, which are not considered part of the decision. While unofficial case reporters are not considered primary sources, the text of the cases within them (excluding any editorial additions) is still considered a primary source.
Secondary sources, on the other hand, provide context, explanation, and analysis of the law. They include law review articles, journal articles, legal encyclopaedias, treatises, and law digests. While secondary sources do not carry the same authority as primary sources, they can be extremely useful in understanding and interpreting the law. They can also be used to find primary authority on a particular legal issue.
In the context of case law research, American Law Reports (A.L.R.) and Lexis are examples of secondary sources. A.L.R. is a compilation of attorney-written annotations that analyse specific legal issues and provide citations to relevant cases. Lexis uses a headnote system to categorize and classify cases, aiding in the process of finding relevant case law.
Writing Case Law Citations: A Step-by-Step Guide
You may want to see also
Frequently asked questions
Court opinions are gathered and published in chronological order in volumes called Case Reporters, or Reporters. They can be official or unofficial.
Primary sources include laws, orders, decisions, rules, regulations, statutes, cases, and regulations issued by a governmental entity or official.
The text of the cases within the reporters is considered a primary source, except for any editorial additions in unofficial reporters such as headnotes.
Examples of case reporters include United States Reports, the Federal Reporter, the Federal Supplement, and the Federal Appendix.
