The ''Federal Reporter'' () is a case law reporter in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that is published by

West Publishing West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West h ...

and a part of the

National Reporter System West's National Reporter System (NRS) is a set of case law reporters for federal courts and appellate state courts in the United States. It started with the '' North Western Reporter'' in 1879 which has its origin in ''The Syllabi'' (1876, ). ...

. It begins with cases decided in 1880; pre-1880 cases were later retroactively compiled by West Publishing into a separate reporter, ''

Federal Cases ''Federal Cases, circuit and district courts, 1789–1880'' (in case citations, abbreviated F. Cas.) was a reporter of cases decided by the United States district and circuit courts between 1789 and 1880. It is part of the National Reporte ...

''. The fourth and current ''Federal Reporter'' series publishes decisions of the

United States courts of appeals The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...

and the

United States Court of Federal Claims The United States Court of Federal Claims (in case citations, Fed. Cl. or C.F.C.) is a United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. It was established by statute in 1982 as the United States Claims Court, ...

; prior series had varying scopes that covered decisions of other federal courts as well. Though the ''Federal Reporter'' is an unofficial reporter and West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the United States that legal professionals, including judges, uniformly

cite A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...

to the ''Federal Reporter'' for included decisions. Approximately 30 new volumes are published each year.

Distinctions

The ''Federal Reporter'' has always published decisions only from federal courts lower than the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, but not the Supreme Court itself. Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are published in one official reporter and two unofficial reporters, which are, respectively, the ''

United States Reports The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, orders, case tables (list of every case decided), in alphabetical order both by the name of the petitioner ...

'', ''Supreme Court Reports'' (a National Reporter System member published by West), and the

United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition The ''United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition'', or ''Lawyers' Edition'' (L. Ed. and L. Ed. 2d in case citations) is an unofficial reporter of Supreme Court of the United States opinions. The ''Lawyers' Edition'' was established by t ...

. Beginning in 1932, West stopped publishing federal district court cases in the Federal Reporter and began to publish them in a separate reporter, the ''

Federal Supplement The ''Federal Supplement'' ( is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National Reporter System. Although the ''Fe ...

''.

Features and print format

The ''Federal Reporter'' organizes court opinions within each volume by the date of the decision, and includes the full official text of the court's opinion. West editors add headnotes that summarize key principles of law in the cases, and Key Numbers that classify the decisions by topic within the

West American Digest System The West American Digest System is a system of identifying points of law from reported cases and organizing them by topic and key number. The system was developed by West Publishing to organize the entire body of American law. This extensive taxon ...

. Only decisions designated by the courts as "for publication—those with full

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

ial value for which citation in court filings is permissible—are included in the ''Federal Reporter''. "Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals may be found in the ''

Federal Appendix The ''Federal Appendix'' was a case law reporter published by West Publishing from 2001 to 2021. It published judicial opinions of the United States courts of appeals that were not expressly selected or designated for publication. Such " unpublis ...

'', also published by West. New opinions are first issued by West in weekly pamphlets called "Advance Sheets", to be eventually supplanted by the final hardbound, successively numbered volumes. Three series of ''Federal Reporter'' have been published to date, with the fourth series started in June 2021.

Series

''Federal Reporter''

''Federal Reporter, Second Series''

''Federal Reporter, Third Series''

''Federal Reporter, Fourth Series''

Electronic sources

The ''Federal Reporter'', including its supplementary material, is also available at websites includin
OpenJurist.org
on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

compilations, and on West's online legal database,

Westlaw Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statu ...

. Because individual court cases are identified by

case citation Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case ci ...

s that consist of printed page and volume numbers, the electronic text of the opinions incorporates the page numbers of the printed volumes with "star pagination" formatting—the numbers are boldfaced within brackets and with asterisks prepended (i.e., 4'') to stand out from the rest of the text. Though West has

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

over its original headnotes and keynotes, the opinions themselves are

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

and accordingly may be found in other sources, chiefly Lexis, Westlaw's primary competitor. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has also ruled that Lexis can copy the page numbers from the ''Federal Reporter'' to allow for proper citation without violating West's copyright.See

Notes

External links

*{{official, https://store.legal.thomsonreuters.com/law-products/Reporters/Federal-Reporterreg-3d-National-Reporter-System/p/100000584 West (publisher) Case law reporters