U.S. Digests in Europe

Digests definition and purposes
Court opinions are published in volumes called court reports (also “reporters”). Digests help researchers locate cases on specific legal topics or issues and are powerful tools of case-finding.

Digests are a method of alternative decision-finding to electronic searches, since searching may provide irrelevant cases, sometimes, compared to digests. This is due to the fact that digests were produced through an editorial analysis in court opinions classifications. The organization of court decisions in digests lead to analogous decisions that use different words, or to words which are distinct to those that might occur to a legal researcher.

Several digest systems are published. One of them is the West´s Key Number System, which cover the court decisions contained in the West´s National Reporter System.

Tips for Using U.S.Digests

After searching or browsing, most legal researchers use, when available, a digest to find more cases. Here are some tips, specially using the West´s digest system.

• Choose a digest that covers your jurisdiction. In general, using the narrowest digest is most efficient (faster).
• If you already know relevant Topics and Key Numbers and you use the West´s digest system, start with those Topics and/or Key Numbers.
• Review briefly the scope note and the Analysis (outline) at the start of each Topic to get a sense of what is covered.
• Review briefly the case headnotes and note relevant cases.
• Use, when needed, the Descriptive Word Index to find more Topics and Key Numbers.
• Follow cross references.
• Use the Table of Cases if you know the name of the court decision.

Digests of the U.S. courts

• Federal Practice Digest, 4th Series (1975-date)
• Federal Practice Digest, 3d Series (1975-89)
• Federal Practice Digest, 2d Series (1961-75)
• Modern Federal Practice Digest (1939-60)
• Federal Digest (1754-1938)

Digests of other U.S. Courts

• U.S. Supreme Court United States: Supreme Court Digest (1754-date)
• U.S. & state courts: Decennial Digest (multiple series)
• U.S. Bankruptcy courts: West’s Bankruptcy Digest

See Also

• American Digest System
• United States Reports
• U.S. States Court Reports
• Supreme Court Reporter
• United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition
• United States Law Week
• Federal Reporter
• Court Reports
• Court System in the United States