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The Federal Reporter is a reporter of federal case law in the United States that is published by West Publishing. The current series publishes decisions of the United States courts of appeals and the United States Court of Federal Claims; prior series had varying scopes that covered decisions of other federal courts as well. Though West is a private company and does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the U.S. that legal professionals uniformly cite to the Federal Reporter for included decisions.

Features and print format

The Federal Reporter organizes court opinions within each volume by the date of the decision, and includes the full official text of the court's opinion. West editors add headnotes that summarize key principles of law in the cases, and Key Numbers that classify the decisions by topic within the West American Digest System.

Only decisions designated by the courts as "for publication"—those with full precedential value for which citation in court filings is permissible—are included in the Federal Reporter. "Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals may be found in the Federal Appendix, also published by West. New opinions are first issued by West in weekly pamphlets called "Advance Sheets," to be eventually supplanted by the final hardbound, successively numbered volumes. Three series of Federal Reporter have been published to date.

Series

Federal Reporter

Citation: F.

Published: 1880 – 1924

Volumes: 300

Courts covered:

United States District Courts
United States Circuit Courts (abolished in 1912)
United States Courts of Appeals (established in 1891)
United States Court of Claims
Commerce Court of the United States (1911 – 1913, abolished)
Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia (established in 1893)

Federal Reporter, Second Series

Citation: F.2d

Published: 1924 – 1993

Volumes: 999

Courts covered:

United States District Courts (until 1932)^[1]
United States Courts of Appeals
United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (1929 – 1982)^[2]
United States Emergency Court of Appeals (1942 – 1961)
United States Court of Claims^[3]
Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia (until 1932)

Federal Reporter, Third Series

Citation: F.3d

Published: 1993 - present

Volumes: 400+

Courts covered:

Electronic sources

The Federal Reporter, including its supplementary material, is also available on CD-ROM compilations, and on West's online legal database, Westlaw. Because individual court cases are identified by case citations that consist of printed page and volume numbers, the electronic text of the opinions incorporates the page numbers of the printed volumes with "star pagination" formatting—the numbers are boldfaced within brackets and with asterisks appended (i.e., [*4]) to stand out from the rest of the text.

Though West has copyright over its original headnotes and keynotes, the opinions themselves are public domain and accordingly may found in other sources, chiefly Lexis, Westlaw's competitor. Lexis also copies the star paginated Federal Reporter numbering in their text of the opinions to allow for proper citation, a practice that was the subject of an unsuccessful copyright lawsuit by West against the parent company of Lexis.^[4]

Notes

^ U.S. District Court opinions after 1932 are covered in the Federal Supplement, also published by West.
^ The U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals was subsequently merged into the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
^ This court was redesignated as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in 1993.
^ See Matthew Bender & Co. v. West Publ. Co., 158 F.3d 693 (2d Cir. 1999).

External links

Official site for sales of Federal Reporter, 3d

[1] U.S. District Court opinions after 1932 are covered in the Federal Supplement, also published by West.

[2] The U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals was subsequently merged into the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

[3] This court was redesignated as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in 1993.

[4] See Matthew Bender & Co. v. West Publ. Co., 158 F.3d 693 (2d Cir. 1999).

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 The ''Federal Reporter'' organizes court opinions within each volume by the date of the decision, and includes the full official text of the court's opinion.  West editors add headnotes that summarize key principles of law in the cases, and Key Numbers that classify the decisions by topic within the [[West American Digest System]].
-Only decisions designated by the courts as for publication are included in the ''Federal Reporter''.<ref>"Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals may be found in the ''[[Federal Appendix]]'', also published by West, or in online databases such as [[Lexis]] or [[Westlaw]].</ref>  These are first issued by West in weekly pamphlets called "Advance Sheets," to be eventually supplanted by the final hardbound, successively numbered volumes.  Three series of ''Federal Reporter'' have been published to date.
+Only decisions designated by the courts as "for publication"&mdash;those with full [[precedent]]ial value for which citation in court filings is permissible&mdash;are included in the ''Federal Reporter''.  "Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals may be found in the ''[[Federal Appendix]]'', also published by West.  New opinions are first issued by West in weekly pamphlets called "Advance Sheets," to be eventually supplanted by the final hardbound, successively numbered volumes.  Three series of ''Federal Reporter'' have been published to date.
 ==Series==