PUBLIC SCHOOL LAW
Part 16 : Primary Legal Sources —Judicial

Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Appellate Courts
U.S. District Courts http://www.uscourts.gov/

Divided into 11 Appellate Circuits
District Courts--Some states have more than one district, others have only one
Geographic Boundaries of the United States Courts of
Appeals and United States District Courts
Court Records
The predominant type of record the Federal courts create and maintain is a case file, which contains a docket sheet and all documents filed in a case. There are different ways to obtain the information .
Court Locator
Contains a map similar to the one in the next slide in which you can select the state that you wish to find federal courts by moving your pointer to that state, and by clicking on the state, you can obtain contact information for the federal court desired.

Court cases are put into a publication called a reporter.
A reporter is a chronological listing of all cases decided by a court
As soon as a case is decided it is printed in a separate document called a slip opinion

The Government West Publishing Company

Example of case law published by the United
States Government
Contains U.S. Supreme court cases
Published by the Government Printing Office according to law.
See 28 U. S. C. §411
As of Oct 2008, 546 volumes had been published .

http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/
This site contains the United States
Reports from Volume 1 (1754) to Volume
546 (2005)

For more than a century, West has been a partner to the U.S. legal system, publishing case law in its reporter series and now publishing WESTLAW
West Publishing Company is now a part of
Thomson Reuters.

Supreme Court Reporter
Federal Reporter
Federal Supplement

This set is a Federal case law reporter series in
West's® National Reporter System. This product covers opinions and decisions from 1882 to date issued by the United States Supreme Court.
Cases published in this product series are enhanced with headnotes, Key Numbers, and
Synopses prepared by West's internal staff of highly trained attorney editors.
The Supreme Court Reporter and United States
Reports both cover U.S. Supreme Court cases

This set is a Federal case law reporter series in West's®
National Reporter System.
It covers opinions and decisions from 1880 to date in three series issued by the 13 circuits of the United States
Court of Appeals.
Federal Reporter 1st Series 1880-1925
Federal Reporter 2nd Series 1925-1993
Federal Reporter, 3rd Series (1993-present)
Cases published in this product series are enhanced with headnotes, Key Numbers, and Synopses prepared by West's internal staff of highly trained attorney editors.
The above links can be used if you have the citation to a case, no subject searching

This set is a federal case law reporter series in
West's® National Reporter System.
This product covers opinions and decisions from
1933 to 1998 issued by U.S. District Courts.
Decisions issued by the U.S. Customs Court
(now U.S. Court of International Trade) and
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation are also included.
Cases published in this product series are enhanced with headnotes, Key Numbers and synopses prepared by West's internal staff of highly trained attorney editors.

Trial courts (circuit, district, superior)
Intermediate courts
(most states, but some have no intermediate court)
Supreme court

West’s Regional Reports
West also publishes what is known as offprint reporters that contain the decisions of a single state but with regional reporter pagination. This is the case with
Oklahoma Decisions

Atlantic Reporter-
Covers opinions and decisions issued by the states of Connecticut, Delaware, District of
Columbia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New
Jersery, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
North Eastern Reporter-
-Covers opinions and decisions from 1936 to date issued by the state courts of
Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio
North Western Reporter-
-Covers opinions and decisions from 1942 to date issued by the state courts of
Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota,
South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Pacific Reportercovers judicial cases of the states of
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas,
Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah,
Washington, Wyoming.
South Eastern Reporter-
Covers opinions and decisions issued by the state courts of Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
Southern Reporter-
Covers opinions and decisions from 1941 to date issued by the state courts of Alabama, Florida,
Louisiana, and Mississippi.
South Western Reporter-
-This product covers opinions and decisions issued by the state courts of
Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.

Oklahoma Decisions is published by West

Oklahoma State Courts Network:
Electronic Law Library

Texas Courts Online

Cornell University Law School: State
Courts —By Jurisdiction
(links to the state court websites)
LexisOne: Free Case Law
(last ten years of state and federal courts and US Supreme court)
State Court Web Sites
This page provides judicial branch links for each state, focusing on the administrative office of the courts, the court of last resort, any intermediate appellate courts, and each trial court level.

Hurray! You are done with Part 16:
Primary Legal Sources-Judical.