Case Law

What is Case Law?

There are three types of law which prevail at the federal, state, and local levels of government in the United States: Statutory Law, Case (or Judicial Law), and Regulations (or Administrative Law). Case law is the law of reported judicial opinions. Opinions are also known as reports or decisions. NOT all opinions published; trial court opinions are seldom published. A reported judicial opinion may include: majority or plurality opinion, concurrences or dissents, and a prefatory syllabus.

"Stare Decisis" (or precedent) is the basic concept of case law (common law) in which courts look to statutes and regulations and prior court decisions to formulate opinions. One method of determining prior law is to "Shepardize" a citation, using the Shepard's Citations volumes.

Legal Citation

The legal citation for a case identifies the name of the court reporter in which the opinion is published, the volume number, and the page on which the opinion begins. Sometimes opinions are published in more than one reporter. These are called "parallel citations." LexisNexis Academic (a Library database) includes notations and page numbers of all the parallel citations for a case, including the Lexis citation. To identify a case in a research paper, use the name of the case and a legal citation taken from a print reporter. The Lexis citation may be included as a convenience.

438 U.S. 265
438 [volume] U.S. [Abbr. of case reporter] 265 [page number]

1978 U.S. Lexis 5
1978 [year] U.S. [Abbr. of court] Lexis 5 [Lexis number] [parallel citation for the above case]

Court Reporters

Contain published or reported opinions of the court
Are arranged chronologically
Are published by jurisdiction. Delaware is in Atlantic region and Third Circuit.

The federal government publishes United States Reports -- the reporter of the Supreme Court
Note: bound volumes of United States Reports contain the fourth and final generation of the Court's opinions and additional materials (U.S. Documents Reference Ju 6.8:). Earlier generations include: Ju 6.8/a: and Ju 6.8/b:
Reporters for other jurisdictions are commercially published
One case may be published in more than one reporter; citations to additional sources are called parallel citations
For a listing of the most popular reporters and their digests, see the Table of Courts & Case Reporters

Digests and Regional Digests

Are multi-volume subject indexes to case law
Are arranged alphabetically by subject (points of law). Each Digest has a multi-volume "Descriptive Index" to assist laypersons in finding points of law
Are compiled by state, geographic area, or jurisdiction. Delaware is in Atlantic region and Third Circuit
Are commercially published
Are updated by pocket parts and pamphlets
Include table of cases and plaintiff-defendant and defendant-plaintiff case indexes

West's digests use topic and key number classification, keyed to the West's published court opinions.
LexisNexis Academic (Library Databases) [restricted to UD] offers keyword searching and may replace using a digest

Encyclopedias & Handbooks

Provide a narrative overview of legal subjects with footnote reference to case law
Are arranged alphabetically by subject
Are a good starting point when unfamiliar with a legal issue

West's Encyclopedia of American Law. (WEAL). Minneapolis St. Paul, MN: West Pub. Co. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref KF154 .W47)

Corpus Juris Secundum. (CJS). Minneapolis St. Paul, MN: West Pub. Co./Thomson West. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref KF154 .C72)

United States Supreme Court Decisions, 1778-1996: An Index to Excerpts, Reprints, and Discussions, 1980-1995. Kelly S. Janousek, ed. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2001. Location: Morris Library - Reference (Ref KF101.6 .J36 2001) Reference Desk: A list of Supreme Court cases with complete citation information and a bibliography of books and articles published from 1980 to 1995 about Supreme Court cases. Includes indexes by subject and popular name. Continues United States Supreme Court Decisions... by Nancy Anderman Guenther.

Supreme Court Opinions: Free Internet Sources

Supreme Court of the United States. Location: Internet (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html): Official Web site of the Supreme Court. Provides slip opinions from 2003 to present in PDF format. Provides the complete bound volumes of United States Reports from 1991 (vol. 502) to present in PDF format. Bound volumes of United States Reports contain the fourth and final version of opinions as well as additional materials. The Web site includes a guide called "Information about Opinions."

U.S. Supreme Court Opinions: Cornell. (LII). Location: Internet (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/): Full text of Supreme Court opinions issued since 1990, with selected historic decisions. From Cornell's Legal Information Institute.

Supreme Court Decisions: GPO Access. Location: Internet (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/supcrt/index.html): Full text of Supreme Court decisions, 1937-1975.

U.S. Supreme Court Opinions: Findlaw. Location: Internet (http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html): Full text of Supreme Court decisions from FindLaw. Includes decisions since 1893 (U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: U.S. Reports 150-, 1893- ). Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case name, and words in the full text of the opinion.

Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia. Location: Internet (http://www.oyez.org/): A multimedia database. Provides digital audio (RealAudio) of the Oral Arguments in many important cases, as well as several recordings of the announcement of the Court's opinion. Note: The Court began to record its public sessions in October 1955. Provides information about selected major constitutional cases heard and decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, with links to the full text of decisions from 1893 to present via FindLaw. Includes information on the Justices and important cases in which they participated.

Delaware State Courts: Internet

Delaware State Courts: Opinions and Orders.
Location: Internet (http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/)

Table of Courts & Case Reporters

COURTS COVERED	CASE REPORTER	DIGESTS
Comprehensive: Federal Courts Comprehensive: All Courts	FindLaw (Internet) LexisNexis Academic Library databases [restricted to UD]
Supreme Court	United States Reports (U.S.) U.S. Doc Ref Ju6.8: (vol. 502- also on Supreme Court Web) Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.) KF101 .A322 U.S. Law Week (U.S.L.W.) K25 .N48 Latest 5 years in Ref Supreme Court Opinions (Internet)	U.S. Supreme Court Digest Ref KF8741 .A53 U5
Lower Federal Courts: U.S. District Courts U.S. Circuit Courts U.S. Court of Appeals U.S. Court of Claims U.S. Court of Customs	Federal Reporter (F. or Fed.) KF110.1 .F441 1880-1924 (vol. 1-300) Federal Reporter, 2d Series (F.2d) KF110.1 .F442 1924-1993 (vol. 1-999) Federal Reporter, 3d Series (F.3d) KF110.1 .F442 1993- (vol. 1-) Federal Supplement (F.S. or F. Supp) KF105 .F44 1933-1998 (vol. 1-999) Federal Supplement, 2d Series (F.S.2d or F. Supp2d) KF105 .F44 1998- (vol. 1-) Court Links (Internet) Third Judicial Circuit (Internet) Findlaw: 3rd Circuit Opinions (Internet)	Federal Digest K69 .F42x Prior to 1939 Modern Federal Practice KF127 .W48 1976 1939-1960 West's Federal Practice Digest, 2d Lib. Annex KF127 .W48 1976 1961-1975 West's Federal Practice Digest, 3d Lib. Annex KF127 .W48 1984 1975-1983 West's Federal Practice Digest, 4th Ref KF127 .W48 1989 1975-
State Courts and Courts of Appeals in nine states: CT, DE, ME, MD, NH, NJ, PA, RI, VT	Atlantic Reporter (A. or Atl.) KF135 .A7 1895-1938 (vol. 1-200) Atlantic Reporter, 2d Series (A. 2d.) KF135 .A7 1938-1988 (vol. 1-531) West's Atlantic Reporter (A. 2d.) KF135 .A7 1988- (vol. 532-)	Atlantic Reporter Digest Lib. Annex KF135 .A7 W39 1930-1968 West's Atlantic Digest 2d Ref KF135 .A71 .W4 1968-
Delaware State Courts	Opinions & Orders (Internet)

This page is maintained by Rebecca Knight, Reference Department.

Version: 10/2009
Last modified: 10/09/09

Case Law:

A Research Guide