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1L Legal Research Primer

What is Case Law?

  • Cases are written decisions of a court, usually an appellate court.
  • Primary authority from the judicial branch.
  • Cases must be designated for publication; only published cases are precedential.
  • Can be binding or persuasive.

Cases are binding only on lower courts in the same jurisdiction

Within each jurisdiction, the decision of the highest court is binding on the lower courts. i.e., A decision of the United States Supreme Court on a federal question would be binding on all courts that entertain the identical federal question

  • When the question is one of state law, state courts are bound by their court of last resort, but· they are free to accept or reject decisions by courts of other states and decisions by federal courts interpreting their state's law.

Case Reporter System

Most court opinions (cases) are published in the National Reporter System 

  • Published case decisions are collected chronologically by case reporters. 
  • Reporters are organized by jurisdiction:
    • Federal cases go in federal reporters (U.S., F.3d, F. Supp. 2d, etc.).
    • State cases go to state and regional reporters. 
  • Most reporters have an associated set of digests classifying cases by subject.

Organization of Cases in Reporters

Geography Cases from certain courts in a region are published together
Jurisdiction Several states may make up a regional area and are combined in one reporter i.e., Atlantic Reporter (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
Subject Matter There may be subject matter reporters that report all cases from a subject area: i.e., Federal Rules Decisions, Disability Rights Reporter​​​​​​​

 

Where to find cases

  Supreme Court  Federal Circuit Court  Federal District Court Special Courts
Official Reporter

U.S. Reports 

 Federal Reporter Federal Supplement Various
Description Contains all of the cases decided by SCotUS Includes all opinions of the U.S. Courts of Appeal, U.S. Court of Claims, U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals

Reports District Court cases before 1934

 Different looseleaf and electronic services report specialty cases, i.e., Standard Federal Tax Reporter

 

Regional (State) Reporter System

 

 

There are 7 regional reporters that collect state cases:

A.2d, N.E.2d, N.W.2d, P.3d, S.E.2d, S.W.3d, So. 2d

Most states also have their own reporters

Check Bluebook Table 1 to identify  the reporter(s) for your state

Case Publication Stages

Published v. Unpublished Cases

Remember! Only published cases appear in a reporter 

(Published is synonymous with "reported")

Published Appellate Cases Unpublished Appellate Cases
The appellate court decides whether to designate a case as published [non-precedential cases] = [unpublished cases]
Most cases are NOT designated for publication Many cases are not designated for publication 
Only published cases have precendential value/are binding in authority  Just because it is on the court website does NOT mean it is "published" or "reported"