A headnote is a brief summary of a particular
point of law that is added to the text of a
court decision
In law, a judgment, also spelled judgement, is a decision of a court regarding the rights and liabilities of parties in a legal action or proceeding. Judgments also generally provide the court's explanation of why it has chosen to make a particula ...
to aid readers in locating discussion of a legal issue in an opinion. As the term implies, headnotes appear at the beginning of the
published opinion.
In 1906, 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 tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
ruled in ''
United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co.'' that headnotes have no legal standing and therefore do not set
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 v ...
.
['' United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co.'', ]
See also
*
Case law
Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of ...
References
Judicial legal terminology
American legal terminology
{{vocab-stub