Reporter (law)
From LawGuru Wiki
In law, a reporter is a series of books which contain court opinions. The term was originally used to refer to the individual persons who actually compile, edit, and publish such opinions. It still carries that alternative meaning, which can be confusing.
In common law countries, court opinions are legally binding under the rule of stare decisis. Thus, the regular publication of such opinions is important so that everyone—lawyers, judges, and laymen—can all find out what the law is, as declared by judges.
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History (by country)
United Kingdom
In England, reporters were initially compiled in a rather haphazard fashion by private entrepreneurs. The situation was not helped by the tradition among English judges of delivering opinions orally, and of not distributing written copies, so the quality of reporters usually depended on the shorthand skills of whomever was taking notes.
In 1865, the nonprofit Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales was founded, and it has gradually become the dominant publisher of reporters in the U.K. It has compiled most of the best available copies of pre-1866 cases into the English Reports. Post-1866 cases are contained in the ICLR's own Law Reports. Even today, the U.K. government does not publish an official reporter, but its courts have promulgated rules stating that the ICLR reporters should be cited whenever possible.
United States
In the United States, a similarly chaotic situation prevailed up to the mid-19th century, when the U.S. Supreme Court and many U.S. states began to publish official reporters. In the 1880s, the West Publishing Company started its National Reporter System, which is a family of regional reporters, each of which covers all federal and state opinions in a specific group of states. The NRS is now the dominant unofficial reporter system in the U.S., and some smaller states have discontinued their own official reporters and certified the appropriate West reporter as their official reporter. West and its rival, LexisNexis, both publish unofficial reporters of U.S. Supreme Court opinions.
Oddly, the U.S. Government does not publish an official reporter for the federal courts at the circuit and district levels. However, just as the U.K. government uses the ICLR reporters by default, the U.S. courts use the unofficial West federal reporters, which are the Federal Reporter (for circuits) and the Federal Supplement (for districts). West also publishes several unofficial state-specific reporters for large states like California.
Design and cultural references
Reporters usually come in the form of sturdy hardcover books with most of the design elements on the spine (the part that a lawyer would be most interested in when searching for a case). The volume number is usually printed in large type to make it easy to spot. Gold leaf is traditionally used on the spine for the name of the reporter and for some decorative lines and bars.
In lawyer portraits and advertisements, the rows of books visible behind the lawyer are usually reporters.
See also
- Atlantic Reporter
- North Eastern Reporter
- North Western Reporter
- Pacific Reporter
- South Eastern Reporter
- Southern Reporter
- South Western Reporter
- United States Patents Quarterly
- Court citation
