Claris Law Legal Blogging Community

Name:

E-mail:

Phone Number:

Zip Code:

Your Question:

Editor: L. Cindy Dabney
Profession: Student

Category: Book Research--Case Law

Forgive my long hiatus. Turns out that graduating from law school actually takes some work. What do you know? I will be a little tied up for another two weeks while I get this out of the way, and then I hope to update more regularly. I would like to talk about case headnotes today, though, while I'm here.

There are two different kinds of headnotes. There are the kind that are specific to the facts of the case, which are helpful if you are interested explicitly in that case, but not nearly as useful when you are looking for more general statements of that law, which is what you are usually looking for. Then there are the more general statements of the law. You will more often find the latter, because most editors know that these are the most helpful headnotes.

I really cannot say enough about headnotes. They really are fantastic at making sure that you are grounded--they are clear and concise statements of the law, but at the same time they can direct you both backwards to where in the key number system and digest you are, and to where in the case you will find the judge talking about the point of law that you are interested in. I have a tendency to read the headnotes first (and often only the headnotes) because they tell me straight off whether or not I am interested in the case.

There is some disagreement as to the philosophy of headnotes. As I think I have said most paper sources are published by West, because that's how we got our start, whereas Lexis came in later when computer research was more common, so if you are doing book research you will mostly be reading West headnotes, but I thought you should know that there is a difference, and the two headnote methods do have their ups and downs.

West headnotes are written by the editors. They read the case, identify the important points of law, and then write a little blurb about each point of law. Lexis editors, on the other hand, leave out the last step. Their headnotes are the judges' own language. They too read the case, and identify the important legal issues, but they then take the language straight from the case, and put it up as a headnote.

Now I prefer West headnotes, I like a little interpretation, and having the editor rewrite the point usually gives it some context, so I find them easier to use. But it is true that this is no longer the binding language of the court, and if an editor were to interpret the point slightly differently in the headnote than the court does in the case there could be trouble. This really has not come up much. According to Lexis there had been a challenge to West headnotes, but I'm afraid that I didn't actually pursue the case. It certainly has not come up much. In the end it is a question of preference, but you should be aware of what you are looking at, whether it is an interpretation, or the courts' own language.

I'm sure that there is more to say about case law research in books, but I think I've covered the basics, so I will move onto a new topic, either statutes in books, or case law online. As I said I am very busy at the moment, but I will be updating regularly in a couple weeks. Stay tuned.