What is the decennial digest?
Federal and State Courts. Digest. Seventh Decennial Digest, American Digest System, 1956-1966; A Complete Digest of all Decisions of the State and Federal Courts as Reported in the National Reporter System and the State Reports.
What does the American digest system cover?
Overview. The American Digest is the master index to all the case law of the U.S. It is effective for indentifying and locating reported cases in any federal or state court.
What is West’s general Digest?
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.
What is West’s Key number Digest?
The West Key Number Digest contains the complete Topic and Key Number outline used by West attorney-editors to classify headnotes. Use the digest to locate Topic and Key Numbers related to your issue and to retrieve headnotes classified under those Topic and Key Numbers.
How are laws organized?
As a result, laws are also divided up and organized or codified by subject matter in the United States Code (U.S.C.), to make them easier to use. Statutes are arranged in numbered/named Titles and within each title the topic is further subdivided into chapters, subchapters and sections.
What is California digest?
This Key Number Digest contains all headnotes, classified according to West’s® Key Number System, for California state and federal court decisions reported from 1950 to date. Also there is an outline of the topic, which includes a list of all Key Numbers in that topic.
Is Digest is a secondary source?
Secondary Sources are NOT Law There are several types of secondary legal sources including legal encyclopedias, legal periodicals (law reviews), legal dictionaries, treatises, and digests, each of which will be explained in more detail within this guide.
Who writes American law reports?
It has been published since 1919, originally by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, and currently by West (a business unit of Thomson Reuters) and remains an important tool for legal research. Each ALR volume contains several annotations.
What is the general Digest?
The General Digest. To understand the General Digest. digests are collections of headnotes arranged in topical order. To digest a deposition is to summarize each page. , we must first review the three sets of books that make up the American Digest System.
When a court must follow case law that decision is?
Stare decisis is a legal doctrine that obligates courts to follow historical cases when making a ruling on a similar case. Stare decisis requires that cases follow the precedents of other similar cases in similar jurisdictions.
Is a dissenting opinion primary authority?
dissenting opinion: an opinion written by a judge or justice explaining why she does not agree with the majority opinion. holding: that part of the written opinion that has precedential value and is considered primary authority because it is the ruling or decision of the court.
What is the difference between a key number and a headnote?
Finding one case on point will directly lead you to others through Key Numbers. Headnotes are summaries of specific points of law addressed in a particular case, drafted by Westlaw Attorney Editors to ensure that topics include relevant cases even where those cases may use atypical language.
How to use the American digest system guide?
Guide to Using the American Digest System Name of Digest Coverage Vols. Century Digest 1658-1896 50 vols. First Decennial 1897-1896 25 vols. Second Decennial 1907-1916 24 vols. Third Decennial 1916-1926 29 vols.
Is the century Digest the same as the Decennial Digest?
It does not use the same topic and key number system as subsequent Decennial Digest. To convert a Century Digest Key number to its equivalent key number, use the pink page tables in v. 21 of the First Decennial Digest or the Second Decennial Digest.
Are there case digests in the General Digest?
Case digests in each volume of the General Digest do not cumulate until the publication of the next Decennial Digest. However, in every tenth volume (i.e. v.10, v.20, etc) of the General Digest published, cumulative Descriptive Word Indexes, Tables of Cases and Tables of Key Numbers for the last ten volumes are included.
How to get the century Digest key number?
To convert a Century Digest Key number to its equivalent key number, use the pink page tables in v. 21 of the First Decennial Digest or the Second Decennial Digest. With that adjustment, one can locate decisions on a particular topic of law from 1658 to the current year.
It does not use the same topic and key number system as subsequent Decennial Digest. To convert a Century Digest Key number to its equivalent key number, use the pink page tables in v. 21 of the First Decennial Digest or the Second Decennial Digest.
How often does West’s General Digest come out?
A new decennial appears every ten years and supersedes the General digest for that period. Also available on microfiche from William S. Hein & Co. Supplemented by West’s general digest. Law reports, digests, etc. — United States. Request this item to view in the Library’s reading rooms using your library card.
How are case digests organized in the digest system?
Each General Digest volume contains its own Descriptive Word Index, a Table of Cases and a Table of Cases Affirmed, Reversed, etc. as well as the digests of the cases arranged by key number. Case digests in each volume of the General Digest do not cumulate until the publication of the next Decennial Digest.
