This page is a review of the basics of case law publication. Review it to be sure that you understand the details.
Citator. A citator reports when a document is cited in same other subsequent document. With case law, legal citators indicate when a given case has been cited by a later case, and if so, what effect that later citation had on the original case. Any case you plan to rely on as precedent must be carefully updated using a legal citator. The three main citators are: Shepards on Lexis, KeyCite on Westlaw and Bcite on Bloomberglaw. See also Unit 7: Intermediation.
Digest. A digest is a collection of case headnotes arranged by topic. Originally in book form, digests allow you to find cases on a particular point of law in a particular jurisdiction. Online services provide digests on the fly as you search for particular topics. See Topic and Key Number, below.
Headnote. Headnotes are points of law in a case that have been abstracted and listed in sequential order at the beginning of a case. Headnotes are arranged by topic with headnotes from other cases in a digest. See also Unit 7: Intermediation.
Key Number. See Topic & Key Number, below (infra)
Opinion - Majority One judge writes the opinion when a majority of judges agree with the holding.
Opinion - Concurring A judge who voted with the majority opinion, but writes separately because her reasoning is different.
Opinion - Dissenting A judge who writes a separate opinion where the reasoning and the holding are different from the majority.
Opinion - Per Curiam Literally "By the Court." This happens when the court issues a unanimous opinion, typically on a controversial topic, so that no single author can be singled out.
Official/Unofficial Reporters. The official reporter is printed by the court, or a publisher selected by the court. It is the authenticated record of court opinions. Some courts recognize the West Publishing's regional reporter as official. Table 1 of the Bluebook provides a complete listing of the reporters for each jurisdiction in the United States, and indicates which one is the bluebook "preferred" citation.
Parallel Citation. The same case reported in a different publication.
Published/Unpublished Opinions. An opinion is considered published unless it is labeled unpublished. The court typically designates an opinion as "unpublished" if it doesn't add anything new to the body of law it's about. Courts have different rules about whether they will accept citations to unpublished opinions.
Reporter. A reporter is a collection of cases in chronological order. Originally in book form, reporters allow us to read the text of cases from a given court. Although you will read cases almost exclusively online, most reporter publishers continue to designate the citation of cases cases by the volume, reporter series, and starting page number of a case.
Series. Many print court reports are issued in series. When the volume numbers get too high, they start over with a new series. 998 F.2d , 999 F.2d, 1 F.3d., 2 F.3d., etc.
Slip Opinion. The opinion as issued by the court as a stand-alone document on the day it is decided, before it has been assigned a volume and page number in the official reporter.
Star Pagination. A device, typically and asterisk *, which shows the page breaks for a case in different Reporters. Internal page numbers are important for pinpoint citation of quotations.
Syllabus or Synopsis. A summary of the case. It will usually describe the procedural posture (how the case got to the court) and the holding. It is not part of the official opinion.
Topic and Key Number system. See also Digest, above (supra). A system developed by West Publishing (now ThomsonReuters) to identify related cases on a similar issue. Each headnote in cases published by West will be assigned a corresponding topic and key number. See also Unit 7: Intermediation.
Why it's important to understand the difference between the official text and an editorial enhancement:
In the first place, the headnote is not the work of the court, nor does it state its decision. . . . It is simply the work of the reporter, gives his understanding of the decision, and is prepared for the convenience of the profession in the examination of the reports. . . . And finally, the headnote is a misinterpretation of the scope of the decision.
United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321, 336-37, 26 S. Ct. 282, 287, 50 L. Ed. 499 (1906).
Legal Research in a Nutshell, pp. 58-74.
Orin Kerr, How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for new Law Students, 11 Green Bag 2d 51 (2007).
CASES: Searchable Fields - Advanced Search Westlaw Edge
Where do opinions come from? How are they published? How are they Cited?
Anatomy of a case
During the course of law school you will read hundreds of cases. For the most part, these cases are appellate opinions. It will become faster and easier as you get more practice. In this course the most important thing is to learn the difference between the editorial enhancements, which are designed to help you find other cases, and the official legal opinion that contains the law.
The opinions you read will make more sense if you understand where they come from and how they are published. You need to be able to separate out the official part of the opinion from the editorial enhancements. The words of the judge writing the majority opinion are a primary source of law, the rest of the information is interesting, but cannot be used as precedent. A dissenting opinion is not the law, but it can be cited as persuasive authority. Sometimes, when overturning a lower court, the higher court will adopt the reasoning from the lower court's dissent.
ANATOMY OF A CASE:
It is critical to update each case you rely on to see if it has been overruled by a later case, or occasionally a statute. This is done by referring to a citator. Citators have two functions, one is to see if the case you are starting with is still good law, and the other is to find more cases on the same topic. See Unit 7: Intermediation for additional information on how to use a citator as a finding tool.
Each of the online legal research systems has its own brand of citator, and each of them use a different set of symbols to indicate later treatment of your case citation. The colors vary, but red always means negative treatment. Does this mean you shouldn't use a case that has a red signal? Certainly not. Think of it like driving. When you see a stop sign do you stop, turn around and never go that way again? No, you stop, take a good look around and proceed with caution. That's exactly what you do here. The signal doesn't mean anything by itself, it has to be taken in context. You have to read the case that cited your case and look to see exactly what the court did. If the issue that has negative treatment has nothing to do with the reason why you are citing your original case, so go ahead and use it.
| Service | Citator | Negative Treatment Signal |
| Lexis+ | Shepards | Red Stop Sign  |
| Westlaw Edge | KeyCite | Red Flag  |
| BloombergLaw | BCite | Red Minus Sign |