Federal Reporters

• No official reporters
• Article II courts:  U.S. Courts of Appeal, U.S. District Courts
• Decisions of other circuits persuasive, not controlling authority
• Decisions controlling within the circuit, even on panels of other judges
• Slip opinions
• West reporters

West's Federal Reporters

• Federal Cases 1789-1880 (West)
• Federal Reporter 1880, F.2d 1924, F.3d 1993
• F.3d example on Westlaw: Hughes v. Atty. Gen. of Fla.
• Fed. Appendix of Unreported Decisions 2001
• F. Supp. 1932, F. Supp. 2d 1998:  District Courts
  • District Court opinions in Federal Reporter prior to 1932
• Selective publication of opinions, especially District Court
• Specialized and topical West's reporters (Fed. Rules Decisions, West's Bankruptcy Reporter, West's Education Law Reporter)
• Looseleafs and other publishers (BNA U.S. Patents Quarterly, CCH Federal Securities Law Reports, Collier Bankruptcy Decisions)

Publication of Federal Opinions

• Not all are published
  • Circuit courts began limiting publication in 1973
  • 81.6% of Circuit Court opinions designated as unpublished in 2005
  • Range from 4th Circuit 8.2% published, to 1st Circuit 42.8% published
• Federal Appellate Rule 32.1, effective Dec. 1, 2006
  • Allows citation in briefs of opinions designated "not for publication" or "non-precedential" in all Federal Courts
• E-Government Act of 2002:  All federal appellate court opinions must be available on the internet, even non-precedential ones
• District Court opinions published if submitted to West, or obtained on Pacer by West
  • May be published in F.Supp. 2d or only available on Westlaw and Lexis
• Most state court rules don't allow citation of unpublished opinions
• Unpublished or non-precedential opinions never preferred as cited authority
• In some cases,  "unpublished" opinions are the only ones on point or that fit a fact pattern
• Even if citation permitted, court  may not  consider as precedent
• U.S. Supreme Court has criticized appellate courts for abbreviated unpublished opinions, and has cited unpublished decisions

Federal Appendix

• West's Federal Appendix
• Began publication 2001
• Emory holdings 2001-2008 (Core 1 collection in the Hansell Room)
• Publication of Court of Appeals opinions designated as "unpublished" by appellate courts
• West Digests (marked as unpublished)
• Digest advance sheets combine F.3d and Fed. Appx.
• Headnotes and key numbers
• All Circuit Courts now submit at least some unpublished decisions to West to appear in Fed. Appx.

Federal Court Opinions Online

• Lexis and Westlaw
• Both full-text from 1789
• Cases added when slip opinions received
• Complex searching, Shepards and KeyCite, headnotes
• Westlaw offers pdf images of some reporters
• Bloomberg Law
  • Go bar for quick searches, or use filters to narrow a search by jurisdiction
  • Federal case law from 1789
  • Practice Centers to search by subject areas
• BCite citator, dockets
• On the web on court websites:  all Circuit Courts, some District Courts, usually cases from the mid 1990's on
• Most District Courts have websites with court rules and PACER link, sometimes opinions and orders
• Find Federal court websites using  U.S. Courts.gov
<//li><//li>
• Recent projects have offered more Federal Circuit Court caselaw on free websites, with different search features
  • Many have added older decisions and have included images or citations to the Federal Reporters (needed for citation, but published by West)
  • District Courts:  still few opinions and orders on free sites
• GPO FDSys
  • US Courts Opinions pilot project
  • Adding pdf opinions from selected US appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts
  • Browse list by court, date or docket number, and case name
  • Some searching available in advanced search by full-text, case or docket number, court, nature of suit, party names
  • Works best for finding known cases
  • Includes 8th and 2d Circuit Courts of Appeals
  • District Courts: Middle Dist. of Georgia, Massachusetts, Eastern Dist. of Michigan, Nebraska, Northern Dist. of Ohio, Eastern Dist. of Pennsylvania, Northern Dist. of Texas, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Northern District of New York, Rhode Island
  • Bankruptcy Courts: Southern Dist. of New York, Southern Dist. of Florida, Maine, Eastern Dist. of North Carolina, Northern Dist. of West Virginia
• Public Resource.org
• • Browse the Federal Reporters by citation, including the oldest volumes
  • PDF for some older volumes
• Public Library of Law
  • Search only
  • Results include pdfs
  • Court of Appeals Opinions from 1950 to recent
  • Registration required to retrieve opinions
• Findlaw
• Circuit court opinions back to 1994
• Search by date, party name, docket number, or full-text
• Browse by circuit and date
• Registration required to retrieve full-text opinions
• If you don't have a case name or citation, try searching the opinion summaries for more targeted results and browsing the summary results
• Justia
  • Search the District Courts
  • A few full-text opinions available
  • Results usually docket information and a Pacer link
• Google Scholar
  • Search legal opinions and articles
  • Advanced Search allows limits to US Federal courts, date range, terms
  • How Cited tab with links to citing cases, articles and articles
• CourtListener project
  • Michael Lissner/Berkeley
  • All precedential opinions from the circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, plus non-precedential opinions from most circuits
  • Updated daily with new opinions
  • Search or browse for most recent; best use is finding newly issued opinions
• Pacer U.S. Party Case Index
  • Retrieve by docket number or case name
  • Dockets and court documents as well as opinions
  • $.08 per page, with a cap of $2.40 for most documents (fee increase to $.10 per page April 2012)
• Cornell LII:  Links to Federal courts, includes a search feature for all Circuit Courts
• LexisOne:  Most recent 10 years of Federal Court of Appeals cases, plus all U.S. Supreme Court
• Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
  • Links to court websites, rules, Federal court statistics and publications