West Regional Reporters

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West Regional Reporters
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Finding Cases using a Digest

• A Digest is basically a subject index to case
  law.
• West Group created the Digest system in the late
  1800s to locate all the cases in its National
  Reporter System addressing particular points of
  law
• (or legal issues.)

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Regional Digests

• Regional Digests cover the states in the Regional
  Reporters.
• But only four regional digests are published
  Atlantic, North Western, Pacific, and South
  Eastern.
• No North Eastern, Southern or South Western
  Digests are published.
• West publishes individual state digests for all
  states, except Delaware, Nevada and Utah. States
  with no regional digests use state digests.

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State Digests

• Includes cases which originate in a federal
  district court (federal trial courts) within that
  state, and it also includes cases from the
  federal appellate courts.
• Regional Digests
• Do not include cases from the federal courts.
• i.e., Cases from the federal courts within
  Georgia will be cited in the Georgia Digest, but
  not in the South Eastern Digest.

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• In the state digests, federal appellate court
  cases appear first. Example C.A. stands for
  Court of Appeals. C.A. 11 means the Court of
  Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
• Federal district court cases follow. D. stands
  for District. Example, E.D. Tenn means Eastern
  District of Tennessee N.D. Ga. means the
  Northern District of Georgia.
• State court cases follow the federal cases. If
  you are looking for state court cases only,
  bypass the federal appellate and federal district
  court cases mentioned in the state digest.

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How to Use the Digest Topic Key Numbers

• West created seven categories of the law
  Contracts, Property, Persons, Torts, Crimes,
  Remedies Government
• These seven categories are further subdivided
  into 414 Topics, some of which are very broad,
  such as constitutional, and some of which are
  very narrow, such as cemeteries.
• Topics are further subdivided into subtopics and
  assigned a key number addressing a specific point
  of law under that topic. There are currently over
  20 million key numbers West is adding to these
  daily!

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3 Approaches to Finding Relevant Topic and Key
numbers

• Best to always start with the Descriptive Word
  Index to find relevant topics and key numbers
• You may start with a known topic and use the
  Topic Analysis to find relevant key numbers under
  that topic.
• Start with a known case (from another source) or
  one good case and use that cases topic and key
  numbers to locate other cases in a digest with
  the same topic and key numbers.

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Descriptive-Word Index

• Start by finding the book that says
  Descriptive-Word Index on the spine, usually at
  the end of the Digest set. Then look up words
  that are relevant to your issue. Following each
  entry is a Topic and Key Number.
• Use the Topic and Key Number(s) from the index
  to locate the topics in the main digest volumes.
  Under a particular topic key number are all
  the summaries of cases that contain the issue in
  question.
• Then go to the reporter to read the full text of
  the case.

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The Known Case or One Good Case Method

• Finding just one relevant or good case from
  another jurisdiction or within your jurisdiction
  may lead you to other relevant cases!
• HOW?
• By using Wests Topic Key Numbering System.
• If you have located a case that appears
  relevant to your issue from another source, i.e.,
  a legal encyclopedia, then the next step is to
  locate that case in the reporter and jot down the
  cases relevant topic and key numbers for your
  issue. Next, select the appropriate digest for
  your jurisdiction and use the same same topic and
  key numbers to find other cases discussing
  similar points of law.

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If there are no cases under a particular topic
and key number in your jurisdiction, consider
using the same topic and key number to find
persuasive decisions from other jurisdictions.
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Additional Features of A Digest

• Table of Cases use when you only have a case
  name and no citation to the reporter. Table of
  cases will provide the citation and any parallel
  cites.
• Words and Phrases use to determine if a court
  has defined a particular term.

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Finding the most recent cases under same topic
and key number

• Check Closing Table (closing with cases
  reported in.) in bound digest volume if there
  is no pocket part or supplemental pamphlet. The
  Closing Table tells you which reporter volume was
  the last one covered by the digest. If there is a
  pocket part, check its closing table. If there
  is a supplemental pamphlet, check its closing
  table.
• Then go to the remaining bound volumes of the
  reporter on the shelf which were not covered in
  the digest, and look for the same topic and key
  number in the digest indexes in the back of each
  bound volume.
• Then go to each advance sheet accompanying the
  reporter and look for the same topic and key
  number in the digest indexes in the front of each
  advance sheet.
• To further update, use Westlaws Topic and Key
  numbering system.

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HeadnotesA Review

• Before the West Company publishes a court
  opinion, its editors read the case to determine
  the legal issues or points of law that the case
  covers.
• Editors then write a small paragraph summarizing
  a point of law discussed in the court opinion,
  and assign to it a headnote number (a note at
  the head of a case.) The editor then consults
  the list of over 414 digest topics and assigns
  the headnote to a specific topic. Next, the
  editor examines a detailed outline of
  subdivisions under that specific topic and
  assigns a key number.
• Some points of law are assigned more than one
  topic and key number.
• There may be many points of law addressed in a
  court opinion. These sequential headnote numbers
  serve as a kind of table of contents - you can
  determine quickly where in the opinion particular
  points of law are being discussed!
• Since headnotes are editorial enhancements, they
  are not considered part of the opinion, are not
  the law, and cannot be cited.

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Example of an editors mistakeState v.
Bankhead514 P.2d 800 (Utah 1973).

• In headnote 8 which had been assigned the topic
  Drugs and Narcotics, key 117, the West editors
  wrote
• . . . dominion and control either means that
  drug be found on person of accused or that
  accused must have had sole and exclusive
  possession of narcotic.

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State v. Bankhead514 P.2d 800, 803 (Utah 1973).

• What the court actually said
• Dominion and control neither means that the drug
  be found on the person of the accused nor that
  the accused must have had sole and exclusive
  possession of the narcotic.

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Elements of the Published Decision