Unpacking Case 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. This can be done through citators, such as Shepard's or KeyCite from Westlaw.
You can find Case law and opinions in any of the following databases.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Full-text information from news, business, and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. Though not required, you have the option to create a personal account that will give you access to special features such as alerts, saved searches, folders, history, annotations and more.
- HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
Image-based government document and legal research database. Extensive coverage of U.S. statutory materials, congressional documents and treaties. Also includes all of the world’s constitutions, collections of classic treatises, and presidential documents. Coverage of U.S. goverrnment publications is comprehensive back to inception, and all titles are exact replicas of the official print publication from the U.S. Government Publishing Office. A large assortment of international resources are also available.
- Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
A research service that combines a breadth of news and business information with in depth law-related information.
- National Center for State CourtsThis page provides judicial branch links for each state, focusing on the administrative office of the courts, the court of last resort, any intermediate appellate courts, and each trial court level.
- The Oyez Project - United States Supreme Court MediaThe Oyez Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since October 1955.
- U.S. CourtsSearch through the U.S. Courts search engine to find cases across the country.
- U.S. Supreme Court Opinions: Cornell (LII)Full text of Supreme Court opinions issued since 1990, with selected historic decisions. From Cornell's Legal Information Institute.
Slip Opinions:
Slip opinions are the first publicly available version of opinions. Several days after an opinion is announced by the Court (the bench opinion), it is printed in a pamphlet called a "slip opinion." Each consists of the majority or plurality opinion, any concurring or dissenting opinions, and the syllabus. It may contain corrections not appearing in the bench opinion.
Preliminary Prints:
The preliminary prints are the third generation of opinion publication and dissemination. These are brown, soft-cover "advance pamphlets" that contain, in addition to the opinions themselves, all of the announcements, tables, indexes, and other features that make up the U. S. Reports.
Bound Volumes:
Bound volumes of United States Reports contain the fourth and final generation of the Court's opinions and additional materials. The volumes consolidate opinions for an entire Term. These are the Official Reports of the Supreme court and are published by the Government Publishing Office.
It takes a long time to publish the bound volumes (6-8 years). For more current opinions, see Preliminary Prints, and Slip opinions (Public Laws).
- Contain published or reported opinions of the court
- Are arranged chronologically
- Are published by jurisdiction. Delaware is in Atlantic region and Third Circuit.
- United States Reports -- the reporter of the Supreme Court. Abbreviated: U.S. (Published by the federal government)
- 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
|
COURTS COVERED |
CASE REPORTER |
DIGESTS |
|
Comprehensive: All Courts Comprehensive: Federal Court |
Westlaw Campus Access/Patron Access Nexis Uni |
|
|
Supreme Court "Bound Volumes" |
United States Reports (U.S.) U.S. Doc Ref Ju6.8: U.S. Reports, HeinOnline (vol. 1-; 1754-) U.S. Reports, Supreme Court (vol. 502- ; 1991-) Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.) KF101 .A322 Nexis Uni Westlaw Campus Access/Patron Access |
U.S. Supreme Court Digest, Ref KF8741 .A53 U5 |
|
Supreme Court "Preliminary Prints" and "Slip Opinions" |
United States Reports Preliminary Prints, HeinOnline United States Reports Slip Opinions HeinOnline Westlaw Campus Access/Patron Access U.S. Law Week (U.S.L.W.) K25 .N48 Latest 5 years in Ref |
|
|
Lower Federal Courts: U.S. District Courts Delaware is in the Third Circuit |
Nexis Uni HeinOnline Westlaw Campus Access/Patron Access Federal Reporter (F. or Fed.) |
Federal Digest, K69 .F42x Prior to 1939, Modern Federal Practice, KF127 .W48 1976 1939-1960, West's Federal Practice Digest, 2d, Library Annex KF127 .W48 1976 1961-1975, West's Federal Practice Digest, 3d Library Annex KF127 .W48 1984 |
State supreme court and appellate court decisions (opinions) are:
Delaware is in the Atlantic region reporter, which also covers: |
Nexis Uni HeinOnline Westlaw Campus Access/Patron Access Atlantic Reporter (A. or Atl.) |
Atlantic Reporter Digest, Library Annex KF135 .A7 W39 |
The legal citation for a case identifies the name of the court reporter in which the opinion is published and where the case can be found.
Parallel Citations
Opinions may be published in more than one reporter. These are called "parallel citations."
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.