Court opinions, or cases, are published in reporters. Reporters collect cases in chronological order. Often sets of reporters are limited to opinions from a single jurisdiction or a single court. Federal reporters contain opinions from federal courts while state and regional reporters offer opinions from a state or states in a particular geographic region. Regardless, all reporters are arranged chronologically.
Not every case heard by a court is reported. Typically only cases coming out of appellate courts are reported. Trial court cases are not usually reported though some U.S. District Court opinions are published in the Federal Supplement (F.Supp., F. Supp. 2d) and the Federal Rules Decisions (F.R.D.).
This guide was originally created by Librarian Roberta Woods