FEDERAL CASE LAW

Notice that the covers of reporters basically all look alike, especially those published by West.

Following are just some of the books containing federal case law:

U.S. REPORTS
S.CT. REPORTER
U.S. REPORTS, L.ED.2D
FEDERAL REPORTER
FEDERAL SUPPLEMENT
FEDERAL RULES DECISIONS
FEDERAL APPENDIX

THE INDEX???

OK. Reports and Reporters do not have indexes. Well, then how can a researcher find relevant cases within the reports and reporters? The answer: digests.

Digests act as an index to case law. Thus, the Federal Digest leads to federal cases. The Bankruptcy Digest leads to bankruptcy cases. The Supreme Court Digest leads to, you guessed it, U.S. Supreme Court Cases.

Digests are collections of headnotes arranged in topical order. They are primarily published by WestGroup, and thus utilize the Key Number System. Start in the index of the appropriate Digest. The index will provide a topic and Key Number leading to the main volumes of the digest. The digest will contain multiple headnotes. If any are relevant, the researcher would note the citation at the bottom of the headnote, then look up the actual case.

Zoom in on the digest page above, if you are able. Notice the topic at the top of the page, and the Key Numbers on the page. (They act like section numbers.) Also notice the headnotes, and the citations at the end of each headnote.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

U.S. REPORTS
The U.S. Reports is the official publication of cases from the United States Supreme Court. Start researching in the Federal Practice Digest by West, West's Supreme Court Digest, or the Supreme Court Digest, Lawyer's Edition.

U.S. REPORTS,
LAWYER'S EDITION
Published by Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Company, this set also provides U.S. Supreme Court cases. It also provides annotations of selected cases in the back of each volume, as well as selected lawyer's briefs. It is part of the Total Client Service Library. Start researching in the Federal Practice Digest by West, West's Supreme Court Digest, or the Supreme Court Digest, Lawyer's Edition.

SUPREME COURT
REPORTER
Published by West, this collection of U.S. Supreme Court cases utilizes the Key Number System within the headnotes at the beginning of each case. Start researching in the Federal Practice Digest by West, West's Supreme Court Digest, or the Supreme Court Digest, Lawyer's Edition.

FEDERAL REPORTER
Opinions from the United States Circuit Court of Appeal. Published by West. Start researching in the Federal Practice Digest by West.

FEDERAL SUPPLEMENT
Opinions from the U.S. District Courts. Published by West. The Federal Practice Digest by West is a good place to start your research for federal authority.

FEDERAL RULES DECISIONS
Cases from federal courts that apply or interpret federal rules. Published by West. When looking for an opinion in this book, try either the Federal Practice Digest or the Federal Rules Digest by West.

FEDERAL APPENDIX
This is one of the more recent publications, and its purpose is not clear. It actually is publishing cases that the courts have determined NOT to publish! You figure it out. If you are citing a case from the Federal Appendix, your client is in deep trouble!

Following are some additional federal publications not pictured. Not every law library contains these publications:

BANKRUPTCY REPORTER
Opinions from bankruptcy courts, or appellate court opinions ruling on the validity of bankruptcy court opinions. Start your research in either the Federal Practice Digest or West's Bankruptcy Reporter.

MILITARY JUSTICE REPORTER
Cases from the U.S. Military Justice system. Try starting in the Military Justice Digest, by West.

U.S. VETERAN'S APPEALS REPORTER
A very specific collection of cases appealing veteran's appeals from U.S. Military Justice court decisions.

MORE . . .

-Always check the current validity of a case before citing it in a memorandum or brief for your attorney. This is done either by Shepardizing the case or using one of the online validation services, such as InstaCite on Westlaw or Shepard's Online on Lexis.