Cecily Zamora
Headnotes are brief summaries of a point of law that appear at the beginning of a case. They are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis and are excellent tools to help find other cases that address similar legal issues. They are not part of the actual text of a judicial opinion and should not be cited in academic work. Headnotes are assigned a topic and a key number, which is a permanent number given to a specific point of case law. These can be used to find more cases on the same subject.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Location in a case | At the beginning of a case |
| Writer | Editors at Westlaw and Lexis |
| Language | Closely tracks the court's language |
| Content | Summarises a point of law, a legal rule, or significant facts in a case |
| Use | Assists in finding other cases that address similar legal issues |
| Cite | Cannot be cited in work products or writing assignments |
| Headnote links | Embedded throughout the text |
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What You'll Learn
Headnotes are summaries of a point of law
Headnotes are brief summaries of a point of law that appear at the beginning of a case. They are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis, and sometimes the language is verbatim from the text of the opinion. They are excellent research tools to assist in finding other cases that address similar legal issues. However, headnotes should not be cited in academic work or legal opinions. Instead, one should cite the actual text of the opinion written by the judge or justice.
Headnotes are assigned topic and key numbers, which can be used to find more cases on the same subject. For example, Headnote 6 has been assigned the topic of damages and the key number of 57.21. This means that to find more cases that discuss what is needed to prove a claim of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, one can use the topic of damages and the key number of 57.21 to search online or in a digest.
Headnotes can be found in West digests, where the subtopic is represented by a number called a key number. In the example of Constitutional Law, the key number for Appointment of Counsel is 4809. Each combination of topic and key number represents a unique point of law. Key numbers are the same in all West digests for all jurisdictions, so the same topic and key number combination can be used to find cases in a specific jurisdiction.
LexisNexis headnotes are written by attorney-editors and are different from West headnotes. LexisNexis headnotes are located at the top of a case, and when writing them, the editor gives each one a headline selected from a list of about 450 possibilities. The editor will then assign the headnote a specific subtopic, such as Injury to Tenant or Occupant.
To find other cases that cite a particular headnote, one can click on the "Cases That Cite This Headnote" link. This will bring up other cases that cite the same point of law. Additionally, the Shepardize - Narrow by this Headnote function can be used to find more cases that discuss the same point of law, while the More like this Headnote function can be used to find other cases that pertain to the same point of law, even if they don't cite the original case.
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They are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis
Headnotes are summaries of a point of law that appear at the beginning of a case. They are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis (LexisNexis) and can be extremely useful research tools to help find other cases that address similar legal issues. However, they should not be cited in work products or assignments.
LexisNexis headnotes are written by attorney-editors and are not the same as West headnotes. West headnotes are written by editors who give each one a headline (broad topic) selected from a list of about 450 possibilities. Some examples include Landlord and Tenant, Intoxicating Liquors, and Automobiles. The editor will then assign the headnote a specific subtopic, such as Injury to Tenant or Occupant.
LexisNexis Headnotes are similar to Court Headnotes in that they closely track the court's language and summarise points of law, but they are not linked to Legal Topics. When using Lexis Topics, after finding a useful headnote at the top of a case, you can click into a relevant topic above the headnote and then search or narrow by jurisdiction to identify relevant cases.
West headnotes use the West Key Number System, an indexing system devised for American case law. The key number is a permanent number given to a specific point of case law. The key number system is available on Westlaw but not on Lexis Advance or Bloomberg Law.
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They are useful tools to find other cases with similar legal issues
Headnotes are summaries of a point of law that appear at the beginning of a case. They are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis and are useful tools to find other cases with similar legal issues. They are not part of the actual text of a judicial opinion and should not be cited in academic work.
Headnotes are assigned topic and key numbers, which can be used to find more cases on the same subject. For example, if you are looking for cases that discuss what is needed to prove a claim of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, you can use the topic of Damages and the key number of 57.21 to find more cases that discuss this same issue.
The West Key Number System allows users to view other cases from within or across jurisdictions that address similar issues. This can be done by clicking on the key number hyperlinks that correspond to the headnote of interest. Similarly, LexisNexis Headnotes provide links to headnotes embedded throughout an opinion. Clicking on these links will take you to the LexisNexis Headnotes section of the document, where you can explore content under different topics.
Additionally, the "Shepardize - Narrow by this Headnote" function on LexisNexis allows users to find more cases that discuss the same point of law. This function will show all cases that cite to a particular case and reference the same issue corresponding to that headnote. The "More like this Headnote" function on LexisNexis allows users to find other headnotes similar to the one appearing in their case, which can help identify other cases that pertain to the same point of law.
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Headnotes are not part of the actual text of a judicial opinion
Headnotes are summaries of a point of law that appear at the beginning of a case. They are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis (and sometimes the language is verbatim from the text of the opinion). They are excellent research tools to assist in finding other cases that address similar legal issues. However, headnotes are not part of the actual text of a judicial opinion and should not be cited in academic work. When citing a case, one should only cite the actual text of the opinion written by the judge or justice.
Headnotes are usually accompanied by key numbers. Key numbers are an indexing system devised for American case law, developed by West (now Thomson Reuters). The key number is a permanent number given to a specific point of a case law. The key number system is available on Westlaw, but not on Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law. Each combination of a topic and key number represents a unique point of law.
LexisNexis headnotes are written by attorney-editors and are not the same as West headnotes. West editors give each one a headline (broad topic) selected from a list of about 450 possibilities. Some examples are Landlord and Tenant, Intoxicating Liquors, and Automobiles. The editor will then assign the headnote a specific subtopic, such as Injury to Tenant or Occupant. In West digests, this subtopic is represented by a number called a key number.
While reading through an opinion on Westlaw, one may encounter hyperlinks with numbers embedded throughout the text. If one clicks on one of those links, they can view the corresponding West Headnotes summarising that point of law.
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They are similar to LexisNexis Headnotes
Headnotes are summaries of a point of law that appear at the beginning of a case. They are written by editors at Westlaw and LexisNexis (sometimes the language is verbatim from the text of the opinion). They are excellent research tools to assist in finding other cases that address similar legal issues. However, headnotes should not be cited in work products. When citing a case, one should only cite the actual text of the opinion written by the judge or justice.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. LexisNexis Headnotes are quite similar to Court Headnotes. They closely track the court's language and summarize points of law. However, they are not linked to Legal Topics. LexisNexis Headnotes are written by LexisNexis editors and are inserted as hyperlinks throughout the opinion. Clicking on any of those headnote links will take you up to the LexisNexis Headnotes section of the document.
To find cases that cite a particular headnote, click on the "Cases that cite this headnote" link located below the one-sentence summary of the point of law. This is similar to viewing the citing decisions for a case. To find more cases that discuss the same point of law, click "Shepardize-Narrow by this Headnote". This will show you all cases that cite this case and reference the same issue corresponding with that headnote.
The West Key Number System can be used to view other cases from within or across jurisdictions that address similar issues. This can be done by clicking on the key number hyperlinks that correspond with the headnote of interest.
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Frequently asked questions
A headnote is a summary of a point of law that appears at the beginning of a case.
Headnotes are written by editors at Westlaw and Lexis (sometimes the language is verbatim from the text of the opinion). Headnotes are also written by LexisNexis attorney-editors.
To find other cases that cite a particular headnote, click on the "Cases That Cite This Headnote" link. This will bring up a list of cases that cite the same point of law as the headnote you are interested in.
