Finding and Interpreting Court Cases
There are two basic types of courts: appellate and trial courts. While trial courts determine the facts and apply the law to those facts, it is the duty of the appellate courts to act as the final interpreters of the law. As the interpreters of the law, the appellate court opinions serve as precedent for future court decisions. For that reason, it is principally appellate decisions that you will be studying and briefing. Case briefing is a stylized method that you will use to summarize those court opinions.
A. TYPES OF COURT OPINIONS
Court opinions generally fall within one of four categories:
1) those interpreting and applying enacted law, such as statutes;
2) those deciding on the constitutionality of enacted law;
3) those applying established common law principles; and
4) those creating new common law principles.
The first type of opinion, that of interpreting and applying enacted law, consumes a great deal of the courts' time. Statutes, administrative regulations, and constitutional provisions all contain ambiguous words and phrases. When interpreting enacted law and attempting to determine the legislative intent, the courts rely on the same methods we have discussed: plain meaning, canons of construction, looking to other parts of the statute, and external evidence such as legislative history and prior court decisions. Under the doctrine of stare decisis, if previous courts have already interpreted the same or similar language, the court will generally try to reach a decision that is consistent with those earlier interpretations.
A second type of case involves challenges to the constitutionality of a statute or regulation. Under the power of judicial review, the courts are responsible for ensuring that all statutes comport with the Constitution's requirements. In this type of decision, the court's focus is upon the intent of the constitution's framers and the purpose the constitutional provision was meant to fulfil. Then the court determines whether the statute or regulation is consistent with the constitution's intended purpose.
The third and fourth type of cases involve the common law rather than enacted law. Despite the tremendous growth in statutory law, there are times when no statute covers a litigant's situation. Then the courts rely on the common law, or court made law. Usually, the court will be faced with a group of prior cases and will use them to form an opinion on the current case. Those cases will either be seen as mandatory or persuasive authority.
A decision is mandatory authority when it comes from a higher court in the same jurisdiction. For state cases that means higher courts within that state's own court system. Federal courts deciding a case involving state law must follow the interpretations given by that state's courts. Within the federal court system, it means cases from within that circuit and the United States Supreme Court.
Persuasive authority consists of the decisions of courts that do not constitute mandatory authority and the writings of legal scholars. It may therefore include primary authority, such as decisions of other state courts, and secondary authority, such as legal treatises or law review articles.
When looking to mandatory authority, unless there is a good reason not to do so, the court will decide a new case based upon how courts have held in prior analogous cases, that is, cases that involved similar facts and rules of law. If the court decides that the prior cases and the present one are dissimilar, either on the facts or the law, the court will distinguish the prior cases and reach a contrary decision in the case before it. As you will recall, this process of looking to precedent, prior cases, for guidance is known as following the doctrine of stare decisis.
However, there will be times when the court will create new common law. This can occur either because there is no law governing the situation or because the court decides to overrule its own prior decisions. When there is no law covering a situation, the courts are faced with an issue of first impression. If there are decisions from other jurisdictions, the court may look to those decisions for guidance. In addition, the court may look to secondary authority, such as law reviews or treatises. In cases of first impression, the court has the option of creating new common law rules to cover the situation or to refuse to do so and to defer to the legislature. If a court defers to the legislature, it does so because it thinks the case involves an area of law that an elected body can handle better than the courts. In rare cases a court changes the law by overruling precedent. This usually occurs when a court decides that society's needs have changed so drastically that the old rules should no longer apply. This illustrates the true power of stare decisis. While it normally is a force for stability, it also allows for flexibility and change when the times require it.
B. LOCATING COURT OPINIONS IN REPORTERS
Case reporters are books that contain copies of appellate court opinions. They are usually arranged in chronological order and divided into volumes named for the court that rendered the opinions. Thus, opinions of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the highest appellate court in Massachusetts, are found in Massachusetts Reports. Likewise, those of the highest appellate court in Illinois are reported in the Illinois Reports. The federal government publishes United States Supreme Court cases in the United States Reports.
West Publishing Company is the major publisher of case reporters, and the West National Reporter System covers all appellate court decisions in the fifty states.
Reporters are generally divided into two categories -- official and unofficial. They are official when published at the direction of state or federal statutes. All others are unofficial. The texts of the opinions published in the unofficial reporters are the same as those in the official ones. What differs are the editorial features, such as case summaries, that the publishers add at the beginning of the unofficial reports.
A citation is a formalized method for giving information about (1) the name of the case, (2) where it can be located, (3) the court that decided the case, and (4) the year in which it was decided. At a minimum, a citation to a court opinion will include the names of the parties, the volume and page number of the reporter(s) in which the opinion is published, and the date of the case. Here is a typical citation for a state court case.
Callow v. Thomas, 322 Mass. 550, 78 N.E.2d 637 (1948).
Starting at the left, the parties' last names are listed. Notice that their names are underlined, as is the small "v.". The "v." stands for versus. The party bringing the appeal (the appellant or petitioner) is usually listed first, and the opposing side (the appellee or respondent) is listed second. However, some states follow the practice of listing the name of the original plaintiff first, no matter which party brought the appeal.
When there is more than one party on any side of a dispute or when several cases have been consolidated, the citation uses only the names of the first parties listed on each side or the first case listed. When the state is a party to a case in its own courts, it is usually listed as People v. or State v.. On the other hand, if a state is a party to a suit in federal court, the listing would be the name of the state v., for example, Illinois v. Smith.
After the parties' names, the reporters where the case can be found are listed. Some state court opinions are published in two reporters, the state official reporter and a West unofficial regional reporter. Some state opinions are only published in the West unofficial reporter.
State reporters are abbreviated versions of the state name. For example, Mass. for Massachusetts and Cal. for California. West regional reporters are abbreviated as follows: P. or P.2d for the Pacific region;
N.W. or N.W.2d for the North Western region;
S.W. or S.W.2d for the South West region;
So. or So. 2d for Southern;
S.E. or S.E2d for South Eastern;
N.E. or N.E.2d for North Eastern; and
A. or A.2d for Atlantic.
The number immediately in front of the reporter abbreviation stands for the number of the volume in which the case is found. The number immediately after the reporter abbreviation stands for the page number on which the case begins. Thus you could find Callow v. Thomas either in the Massachusetts Reports, volume 322 beginning on page 550 or in the North Eastern Reporter, Second Series, volume 78 beginning on page 637.
Following the identification of the volume and page of the reporters, the year of the decision appears in parentheses. Callow v. Thomas was decided in 1948.
In those cases where the identification of the court is not obvious from the name of the reporter, there will be additional information about the court in parentheses. In the Callow v. Thomas citation, you can tell that the Massachusetts Supreme Court wrote the decision because only Massachusetts Supreme Court decisions are published in the Massachusetts Reports. However, if the citation had only been to the N.E.2d cite, then the abbreviation for the state would have to be included in the parenthesis.
Callow v. Thomas, 78 N.E.2d 637 (Mass. 1948).
Whenever you see a citation to a federal district court or circuit court of appeals case, you will see the name of the district or the circuit in the parenthesis:
Chambers v. Maroney, 409 F.2d 1186 (3d Cir. 1969).
Brown v. Merkel, 355 F. Supp. 90 (D. Mass. 1990).
Sometimes a writer will make reference to a specific part of the court decision where a particular quote appears or where an issue is discussed. This reference to a particular page within an opinion is sometimes referred to as a pinpoint cite. In those instances, a second page number will appear after the page number on which the case begins. For example, a quotation taken from page 1189 of the Chambers v. Maroney decision would be cited as follows:
Chambers v. Maroney, 409 F.2d 1186, 1189 (3d Cir. 1969).
Finally, sometimes citations will include information about subsequent history of the case. For example:
Telex Corp. v. International Business Machines Corp., 367 F. Supp. 258 (N.D. Okla. 1973), 510 F.2d 894 (10th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 802 (1975).
This citation indicates that the case was first decided by the federal district court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and can be found in volume 367 of the Federal Supplement beginning on page 258. The case was then appealed to the tenth circuit where the decision is reported in volume 510 of the Federal Reporter, Second Series. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to grant certiorari is reported on page 802 of volume 423 of the United States Supreme Court Reports.
C. FINDING CASES ON THE INTERNET
LEXIS Academic Universe
Alternative Internet Sources
There are many alternative web sites for finding court cases on the internet. If you are looking for a U.S. Supreme Court case you can go to the Supreme Court's own web site at http://www.supremecourtus.gov. Findlaw, http://www.findlaw.com a good place to find court cases, statutes and current legal news. Another good site for finding information on new cases is the CNN Law Center at http://www.cnn.com/LAW
D. THE ELEMENTS OF A COURT OPINION
All court opinions contain some preliminary information such as the names of the parties followed by the decision itself. The decision usually contains a statement of the facts on which the case is based, a discussion of the law and how that law combined with the facts created legal issues, the court's decision, and an explanation for why the decision was reached. If the opinion is one printed by West, there will also be the additional editorial features added by West.
1. Preliminary material and West Editorial Features
Following the case name and citation, commercially published court decisions usually begin with headnotes and the syllabus. The headnotes are short summaries of each of what West has identified as the legal issues decided by the court in this decision. The title and key number [e.g., Husband and Wife, key 205(2)] are cross-references to the West Digest system. The syllabus is a summary of the nature of the facts and the court's decision.
Below that is a listing of the judges who decided the case and the attorneys involved in the case. The actual opinion itself begins with the name of the judge who drafted the majority opinion.
2. Facts of the case
Because court decisions are based on the facts of the case, you must have a thorough knowledge of the facts in order to understand the true meaning and impact of a case. Facts can be divided into two groups: substantive and procedural.
The substantive facts deal with what happened to the parties before the litigation began, i.e., why one party is suing the other. Under the principle of standing, courts cannot decide abstract issues or render advisory opinions. Rather, they are limited to deciding cases that involve litigants who are personally affected by their decisions. The facts must therefore establish that a true adversarial relationship exists and the legal requirements of a "case or controversy" exist.
In approaching a civil case ask yourself the following questions:
In criminal cases, your questions should include:
Procedural facts refer to what happened in the lower courts or administrative agencies before the case was decided by the court issuing the opinion. For example, in the trial court did the plaintiff win after a jury verdict, or did the plaintiff lose on a motion to dismiss? These procedural facts are sometimes also referred to as the judicial history of the case.
3. Law Analyzed
A trial court must base its decision upon the law as it exists when the litigants arrive in court. The court's statement of the current law may involve quotation of a relevant statute or a discussion of a series of prior cases.
4. Issues raised
A trial court applies the law to what it determines are the facts of the case. When that case is appealed, the appellate court can either approve or disapprove of the manner in which the trial was conducted and either accept or reject the way in which the lower court interpreted and applied the law. A single appellate case may involve several issues.
5. Decisions reached
In its decision, the court will reach a result both for these particular litigants, but also for future litigants faced with a similar situation. The result reached in this particular case is known as the disposition. This step usually consists of affirming (approving) or reversing (disapproving) the judgment of the lower court. If the case is affirmed, the matter is considered settled, unless a higher level appellate court decides to review it. If the lower court decision is reversed, the appellate court either sends the case back to the lower court for review or substitutes its own judgment for that of the lower court. If the appellate court sends the case back to the lower court, it is with the understanding that the lower court must act consistently with the principles of law the higher court laid down in its decision.
The new rule of law created by this case that will apply to future litigants is known as the holding. The holding is the court's answer to the issue and will be looked to by future courts and litigants for assistance in deciding similar cases. Therefore, the court decision should be analyzed at two different levels: How was the issue settled in this particular case? What general principle of law has been enunciated by the way in which the court resolved this issue?
Do not confuse reversing a decision with overruling a case. An appellate court reverses a decision when it concludes that a lower court failed to properly apply the law. An appellate court overrules a prior appellate court decision when it determines that the law needs to be changed.
6. The reasoning
Most written court opinions devote considerable space to justifying the court's decision. In the reasoning section of an opinion the court reviews the relevant provisions of the constitutions, statutes, and case law and then specifies the logical reasoning process used to arrive at the court's judgment.
In reviewing the reasoning section, it is important to distinguish between the ratio decidendi and the obiter dictum. The ratio decidendi is a decision on the legal issues raised in that specific case, whereas obiter dictum refers to comments the judge makes that are not necessary to the resolution of the issues of the case and are in effect a discussion of a hypothetical situation. For example, it is dictum when a judge talks about what might have been, if the facts had been different from the ones presented. Even though courts only have power to decide the precise case with which they are faced, human nature being what it is, judges often cannot resist discussing issues that were not really presented to them. While that part of the opinion will have no effect on the litigants, it could give you a very good clue as to how the court might decide a different case in the future.
7. Concurring and dissenting opinions
Following the court's opinion, there may also be one or more concurring or dissenting opinions. Judges write concurring opinions when they agree with the disposition of the case, but disagree with respect to the reasoning. Judges write a dissenting opinion when they disagree with the holding.