A. Judicial branch interprets the law
1. Trial court level is where disputes of both civil and criminal level are adjudicated . The first level of the court system where issues of fact and issues of law are determined
2. Intermediate appellate court
3. Supreme court is the "court of last resort"
B. Source of primary legal authority
1. Report - statement of decision of a court made in settlement of a litigated case
2. Law Reports - collection of case reports
3. Forms of published decisions
a. Slip opinions are paginated and published individually by the court
b. Advance sheets are pamphlets which contain the full text of the court decision; arranged chronologically and paginated sequentially as they will appear in the bound casebook
c. Bound case reporter is the consolidation of several advance sheets with subject indexes, alphabetical lists of cases reported in the volume, and lists of words and phrases defined or statutes construed
C. For first hundred years there was no uniformity in format or reporting of judicial cases
1. Initially not a great deal of litigation
2. Different states had different procedures
a. Some states only had verbal reporting
b. Reports were notes kept by reporter present at the decision
c. States with written reports had different formats
d. No uniformity in book size or information presented
e. No national publication of state reports
D. National Reporter System
1. Developed by West Publishing Company in 1887 with the Northeastern Reporter
2. Arbitrarily grouped states somewhat geographically and published case reports in one set of books for each group
a. Included all decisions of the highest court in each state within the arbitrary group even if the state itself did not publish case reports officially
b. National Reporter System reports are all presented in a uniform format
i. Format is the same no matter the origin of the case law
ii. Consistent format aids researcher and speeds familiarity with the system
iii. Geographic grouping allows for reports from neighboring states to be published in the same set of books
iv. Case law for all states are available nationally
v. Over one-third of states use National Reporter System as their official reports
vi. Added key number system to provide uniform subject access to each case from different jurisdictions
c. National Reporter System publications cover over 600 courts across the nation and add over 130,000 decisions each year
3 Organization of West National Reporter System cases
a. Advance sheets and hardbound case reporter
i. Published each week in a paperback format, some speciality reporters advance sheets are published semi-monthly, bi-monthly or monthly
ii Designed to present recent cases before publication of the hard bound, permanent volume
iii. Consolidates advance sheets into a permanent hard bound volume
iv. Case report and page numbers appear in advance sheets as they will appear in the final hard bound reporter volume
b. Editorial enhancements for case, keyword, and subject access
i. List of judges and officers
ii. Table of cases reported in the volume
iii. List of statutes construed in the cases in the volume
iv. Cumulative list of words and phrases
v. Digest of key numbers for subject access
vi. Court rules and orders
E. Parts of a published court decision
1. Caption is the name or style of the decision
a. Lists the names of the parties involved
b. Discloses what kind of case, criminal or civil
2. Court that decided the case
3. Docket number or record number that is assigned by the court clerk and is used to follow the case on the court's calendar
4. Date case submitted and decided
5. Citation
a. Slip opinions are cited by the docket number
b. Published opinions in the advance sheets and hardbound reporter volume are cited by the
6. Syllabus or summary of the case's facts and the court's holding (decision)
a. Not an official part of the decision
b. Not primary legal authority
c Prepared by commentators or editors to aid research
d. May note be cited as legal authority
7. Headnotes
a. Summary of individual points of law in a case as identified by the commentators or editors
b. May not be cited as legal authority
c. Number of Headnotes corresponds to the same number found in the text of the case to source each legal principle discussed in the particular headnote
d. Each headnote has a key number assigned that cross references each headnote to a legal digest
i. Arbitrary designation of subject and number
ii. Similar cases found in legal digest dealing with similar points of law
iii. Refers researcher to specific area of legal digest for cases with similar legal points
e. Names of the attorneys who represented the parties in the action are listed before the opinion of the court
f. Opinion or text of the case
i. Name of the judge writing the opinion is at the beginning of the opinion
ii. Majority opinion
iii. Concurring opinion
iv. Dissenting opinion
F. Star paging
1. Only found in new editions of earlier reports
2. Because the unofficial reporter print may be a different size page from the official, the page numbers in the unofficial do not correspond with those in the official report
3. The citation to the official reporter must be used
4. Official citation page numbers are placed in brackets within the text of the unofficial, often with a star
5. The number in brackets indicates the top of the official reporter page
Federal Case Law
G. U. S. Supreme Court Case Law
1. U. S. Supreme Court is the highest court
a. Official series started in 1790
b. Early court reporters referred to by names of the official court reporter called "nominative reporters"
Vols. 1-4 Dallas (Dall.) 1790-1800 (U. S. Reports vols. 1-4)
Vols. 1-9 Cranch (Cranch)1801-1815 (U.S. Reports vols. 5-13)
Vols. 1-12 Wheaton (Wheat.)1816-1827 (U.S. Reports vols. 14-25)
Vols. 1-16 Peters (Pet)1828-1842 (U.S. Reports vols.26-41)
Vols. 1-23 Howard (How.)1843-1860 (U.S. Reports vols.42-65)
Vols. 1-2 Black (Black)1862-1862 (U.S. Reports vols. 66-67)
Vols. 1-23 Wallace (Wall.)1863-1874 (U.S. Reports vols.68-90)
c. Supreme court decisions are available in print and electronic formats
i. Three permanent bound reporters: U. S. Reports, Supreme Court Reporter published by West, and U. S. Supreme Court Reports Lawyers Edition published by LEXIS Law Publishing
ii. Two looseleaf services: U. S. Law Week published by the Bureau of National Affairs and U. S. Supreme Court Bulletin published by Commerce Clearing House
iii. Two electronic databases: LEXIS and WESTLAW
a. Both use star pagination to official reporter, U. S. Reports Lawyers Edition, and the Supreme Court Reporter
b. Both include historical coverage of the court since 1790
iv. Supreme court cases are accessible on the Internet from many sites e.g., Legal Information Institute, FindLaw, USCCPlus, GPO Access, FedWorld.
v. Electronic publication of Supreme Court cases
2. United States Reports
a. Began publication in 1882 with volume 91 U.S. Reports
b. The official reporter for the U. S. Supreme Court published by the U. S. Government Printing Office. Distributed by the U. S. government since 1922 - vol 257
c. Official reporter for the Supreme Court
d. Cite as U.S.
3. Unofficial U. S. Supreme Court reporters
a. Supreme Court Reporter
i. Published by West Publishing Co.
ii. Part of National Reporter System format
iii. Starting with vol. 106 U. S. dated 1882
iv. Uses star paging to reference original page
v. Cite as S.Ct.
b. U. S. Supreme Court Reports Lawyers Edition
i. Published by LEXIS Law Publishing Co.
ii. All reports since 1791
iii. Uses star paging to reference original page
iv. Cite as L.Ed. (2d)
4. Looseleaf services for Supreme Court cases
a. U.S. Law Week is updated weekly with extra issues during busy weeks on the court calendar
b. U. S. Supreme Court Bulletin is published weekly and gives photographic reproductions of the slip opinions
H. Supreme Court Decisions on the Internet
- Fedworld/FLITE Database
http://www.fedworld.gov
Supreme Court Decisions between 1937 and 1975
http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm
The Fedworld/FLITE database file consists of over 7000 Supreme Court opinions dating from 1937 through 1975, from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports.- FindLaw (Supreme Court Decisions from 1937 to the present) HTML Code http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html http://www.findlaw.com/info/link/searchsup.html
FindLaw provides the complete database of Supreme Court decisions from 1937 to the present. The cases can be searched by the official citation or case name as well as browsed by year or U. S. Reports volume number.- GPO Access - Supreme Court Decisions (Cases Decided between 1937 and 1975)http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/supcrt/
GPO Access Search Page
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces002.html
This database of Supreme Court Decisions contains the full text of cases between 1937 and 1975. This database was originally created by the U. S. Air Force for the FLITE project and was made available from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget as a finding aid to the Aofficial@ version of the Supreme Court opinions that are published in the United States Reports. The database can be searched from a GPO Access page for the database as well as from the search page for all GPO Access databases.- JuriSearch - FindLaw
http://www.unilegal.com/ussc.htm
FindLaw's searchable database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1893 (U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: US Reports 150-, 1893-). Browsable by year and US Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full text. This is a free service that will remain free.- Law Journal Extra - Supreme Court Opinions
http://www.ljx.com/courthouse/supdec.html- U. S. Supreme Court Datbase
http://www.ljextra.com/cgi-bin/ussc- U. S. Supreme Court (Recent Decisions)
http://www.ljextra.com/public/daily/XDspc.html
The Law Journal Extra database provides searchable database of opinions from the Supreme Court since the 1994 Court to the present. The Recent Decisions page links directly to the opinions of current Supreme Court rulings.- Legal Information Institute at Cornell Univ. http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
- Recent Supreme Court Decisions http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/
The Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell provides an index to all of the decisions of the Supreme Court since 1990. The Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell provides an index to recent decisions of the Supreme Court since 1990.- USSC+ Online http://www.usscplus.com/
Information about the Justices - http://www.usscplus.com/info/
This site offers full text searchable indexes to over 5,000 Supreme Court opinions since 1793. The web-based USSC+ database is accessed by clicking on the USSC+ Online button. The database includes leading Supreme Court cases from 1793 to 1966 and comprehensive coverage of all cases published since 1966.- Villanova Univ. VCILP - Supreme Court Database
http://www.law.vill.edu/fed-ct/sct.html
Until the Fall of 1996 the site only included the opinions issued by the Supreme Court since October 1995 acquired from the Supreme Court BBS by the Center. The FLITE database of 7,400 decisions is now accessible at this site. The opinions are sorted by U. S. Reports volume number in chronological order according to the date of the decision. Cases can be searched by a chronological listing, by party names for the 1996-96 Term Decisions and search by keywords from 1995 to the present.