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STATE CASE LAW

STATE CASE LAW. LEGAL INFORMATION AND ACCESS SERVICES SLIS 5647 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCES Dr. Yvonne J. Chandler, Assistant Professor. THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM IS BASED ON PRECEDENT.

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STATE CASE LAW

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  1. STATE CASE LAW • LEGAL INFORMATION AND ACCESS SERVICES • SLIS 5647 • UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCES • Dr. Yvonne J. Chandler, • Assistant Professor

  2. THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM IS BASED ON PRECEDENT • If a court decides that a principle of law applies to certain facts, that principle becomes a precedent that should be followed in future cases.

  3. THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM IS BASED ON PRECEDENT • In order for precedent to work, attorneys, judges, and ordinary citizens must have: • a record of the cases courts decide • a way to quickly locate the points of law in those cases

  4. OFFICIAL/UNOFFICIAL REPORTS • Official Reports are case reports officially sanctioned by state statutes or court authority. May be published by the state or a private publisher.

  5. OFFICIAL/UNOFFICIAL REPORTS • Unofficial Reports are case reports published by private companies not legislatively endorsed by state statutes. The unofficial reports duplicate the opinions in the official reports. Some may be the only source of publication of case reports.

  6. State Case Law Reports • Official Reports of State Case Law Characterized By: • 1. Discontinuation of publication of official reports by many states. • 2. Long delays in publication. • 3. Lack of auxiliary research aids. • 4. Lack of advance sheets for preliminary access to case decisions.

  7. STATE CASE LAW REPORTS • UnOfficial Reports of State Case Law Characterized By: • 1. More helpful editorial features. • 2. Faster publication schedules than the official reports. • 3. Many are part of the National Reporter System.

  8. NATIONAL REPORTER SYSTEM • DECISIONS OF THE COURTS FROM THE 50 STATES TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED IN BOTH OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. • WEST’S IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLISHER OF A LARGE NUMBER OF STATES COURT DECISIONS.

  9. NATIONAL REPORTERSYSTEM • The full text of court opinions plus West’s editorially-supplied headnotes, summaries, and Key Numbers are contained in the publications of the National Reporter System.

  10. NATIONAL REPORTERSYSTEM • Begun by West in 1879, consists of three main divisions • 1. Cases of State Courts - 7 Regional Reporters & CA Reporter and New York Supplement • 2. Cases of Federal Courts - Supreme Court Reporter, Fed. Reporter, Fed. Supplement, Fed. Rules Decisions • 3. Cases of Special Courts - Bankruptcy, Military Justice, Federal Claims,Veterans Appeals Reporter

  11. ALABAMA COLORADO DELAWARE FLORIDA INDIANA IOWA KENTUCKY MAINE MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI NORTH DAKOTA OKLAHOMA RHODE ISLAND SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE UTAH WYOMING STATES THAT HAVE DISCONTINUED PUBLISHING

  12. STATE REGIONAL REPORTERS • ATLANTIC REPORTER (A., A2d) • CALIFORNIA REPORTER (Cal. Rptr.) • NEW YORK SUPPLEMENT (N.Y.S., N.Y.S.2d) • NORTH WESTERN REPORTER (N.W., N.W.2d) • NORTH EASTERN REPORTER (N.E., N.E.2d) • PACIFIC REPORTER (P., P2d) • SOUTH EASTERN REPORTER (S.E., S.E.2d) • SOUTH WESTERN REPORTER (S.W., S.W.2d) • SOUTHERN REPORTER (So., So2d)

  13. Alaska California (Cal. To 1960, Calif. Sup. Ct. since 1960) Hawaii Kansas Oklahoma Washington Oregon Idaho Nevada Arizona Montana Wyoming Utah Colorado New Mexico PACIFIC REPORTER

  14. NORTH WESTERN REPORTER • North Dakota • South Dakota • Nebraska • Minnesota • Iowa • Wisconsin • Michigan

  15. SOUTH WESTERN REPORTER • Texas • Arkansas • Missouri • Kentucky • Tennessee

  16. NORTH EASTERN REPORTER • Illinois • Indiana • Ohio • New York (Since 1932 NY Court of Appeals opinions are also published in the North Eastern Reporter) • Massachusetts

  17. ATLANTIC REPORTER • Pennsylvania • New Jerseay • Maryland • Delaware • Maine • Connecticut • Rhode Island • Vermont • New Hampshire • Washington, D.C.

  18. SOUTHERN REPORTER • Louisiana • Mississippi • Alabama • Florida

  19. SOUTH EASTERN REPORTER • West Virginia • Virginia • North Carolina • South Carolina • Georgia

  20. NEW YORK SUPPLEMENT • All New York State Courts (Since 1932 NY Court of Appeals opinions are also published in the North Eastern Reporter)

  21. CALIFORNIA REPORTER • California Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, and Appellate Department of Superior Court

  22. 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

  23. National Reporter System reports are all presented in a uniform format: • iv. Case law for all states are available nationally • v. Over one-third of states use National Reporter System as their official reports. • vi. Key number system provides uniform subject access to each case from different jurisdictions.

  24. PUBLICATION FORMAT • Advance Sheets or Slip Opinions precede the publication of the official bound case reports. Advance sheets include current awareness information. • The subscription to the Reporter System includes the advance sheets.

  25. PUBLICATION FORMAT • Selection of cases: • A court or the court reporter selects the cases for publication. Less important cases may be eliminated from the official reports.

  26. EDITORIAL FEATURES • HEADNOTES • TABLE OF CASES REPORTED IN THE VOLUME • TABLE OF STATUTES CONSTRUED IN THE VOLUME • CUMULATIVE LIST OF WORDS AND PHRASES JUDICIALLY DEFINED USED IN THE OPINIONS • KEY NUMBER DIGEST SECTION FOR SUBJECT ACCESS • LIST OF JUDGES & OFFICERS OF THE COURT • COURT RULES AND ORDERS

  27. CITATIONS • The Rules of each Court will determine whether a citation may require inclusion of both the official and unofficial report.

  28. CROSS REFERENCE TABLES • National Reporter Blue Book refers the user from the official citation to the unofficial National Reporter System citation • White Pages from the State Blue and White Book refer the user from the unofficial National Reporter System citation to the official citation

  29. CROSS REFERENCE TABLES • Shepard’s Citations - The first time the case is included in Shepard’s the official or unofficial citations will be in parentheses.

  30. ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION OF STATE CASE LAW • Computerized legal research services, WESTLAW and LEXIS, provide full-text coverage of state case law for all fifty states from at least 1945, and for many states back to the 19th century • b. Star paging references to West's regional reporters is provided on WESTLAW and LEXIS

  31. MULTISTATE SITES FOR STATE CASE LAW ON THE WWW • State Court Locator - Villanova Center for Information Law & Policyhttp://www.vcilp.org/State-Ct • Judicial Opinions - Legal Information Institutehttp://www.law.cornell.edu/opinions.html http://www.law.cornell.edu:80/opinions.html • State Law - Social Law Libraryhttp://www.socialaw.com/irg/sl.html • StateLaw - State Government & Legislative Information - Washburn School of Lawhttp://lawlib.wuacc.edu/washlaw/uslaw/statelaw.htm

  32. MULTISTATE SITES FOR STATE CASE LAW ON THE WWW • State Courts Online - Law Journal Extrahttp://www.ljextra.com/courthouse/states.html http://www.ljextra.com/courthouse/statelinks.html • FindLaw - State Resourceshttp://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/ • Georgetown Legal Explorer State, Local, Territorialhttp://www.ll.georgetown.edu:80/lr/lg/state.html • U.S. Federal Government ALSO-American Law Sources Onlinehttp://www.lawsource.com/also/usa.htm

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