National Reporter System

West's National Reporter System (NRS) is a set of law reports for federal courts and appellate state courts in the United States. It started with the North Western Reporter in 1879 which has its origin in The Syllabi (1876, LCCN 2010-213400).

Federal reporters

Federal reporters include:

Title Abbreviation Years Volumes LCCN
Supreme Court Reporter S.Ct. 1882– 1– LCCN 99-537
Federal Cases F.Cas. 1789–1880 1–30 LCCN 99-32
Federal Reporter F. 1880–1924 1–300 LCCN 99-4395
Federal Reporter, second series F.2d 1924–1993 1–999 LCCN 79-641716
Federal Reporter, third series F.3d 1993– 1– LCCN 90-657017
Federal Supplement F.Supp. 1932–1997 1–999 LCCN 33-14431
Federal Supplement, second series F.Supp.2d 1997– 1– LCCN 89-642487
Federal Rules Decisions F.R.D. 1941– 1– LCCN 90-657008
Bankruptcy Reporter B.R. 1980– 1- LCCN 80-644389
Federal Appendix Fed.Appx. 2001– 1- LCCN 2001-208088

State reporters

For the purpose of state court reporting the 50 states and the District of Columbia are divided into seven regions as follows:

Title Abbreviation Years Volumes LCCN States covered
Atlantic Reporter A. 1885–1938 1–200 LCCN 75-641819 CT, DE, DC, ME, MD, NH, NJ, PA, RI, VT
Atlantic Reporter, second series A.2d 1938–2010 1–999 LCCN 39-6316 CT, DE, DC, ME, MD, NH, NJ, PA, RI, VT
Atlantic Reporter, third series A.3d 2010– 1– LCCN 90-655067 CT, DE, DC, ME, MD, NH, NJ, PA, RI, VT
North Eastern Reporter N.E. 1885–1936 1–200 LCCN 75-641653 IL, IN, MA, NY, OH
North Eastern Reporter, second series N.E.2d 1936– 1– LCCN 36-20384 IL, IN, MA, NY, OH
North Western Reporter N.W. 1879–1941 1–300 LCCN 99-1342 IA, MI, MN, NE, ND, SD, WI
North Western Reporter, second series N.W.2d 1941– 1– LCCN 42-12503 IA, MI, MN, NE, ND, SD, WI
South Eastern Reporter S.E. 1887–1938 1–200 LCCN 75-641818 GA, NC, SC, VA, WV
South Eastern Reporter, second series S.E.2d 1938– 1– LCCN 89-642322 GA, NC, SC, VA, WV
Southern Reporter So. 1887–1940 1–200 LCCN 75-641740 AL, FL, LA, MS
Southern Reporter, second series So. 2d 1940–2009 1–999 LCCN 45-30734 AL, FL, LA, MS
Southern Reporter, third series So. 3d 2009– 1– LCCN 88-647630 AL, FL, LA, MS
South Western Reporter S.W. 1886–1928 1–300 LCCN 75-643936 AR, KY, MO, TN, TX
South Western Reporter, second series S.W.2d 1928–1999 1–999 LCCN 88-647631 AR, KY, MO, TN, TX
South Western Reporter, third series S.W.3d 1999– 1– LCCN 88-647631 AR, KY, MO, TN, TX
Pacific Reporter P. 1883–1931 1–300 LCCN 75-643937 AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, NV, NM, OK, OR, UT, WA, WY
Pacific Reporter, second series P.2d 1931–2000 1–999 LCCN 31-34985 AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, NV, NM, OK, OR, UT, WA, WY
Pacific Reporter, third series P.3d 2000– 1– LCCN 89-647235 AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, NV, NM, OK, OR, UT, WA, WY
Map of the U.S., showing areas covered by the Thomson West National Reporter System state law reports.

These regional reporters are supplemented by reporters for a single state like the New York Supplement (N.Y.S. 1888–1938; 2d 1938–) and the California Reporter (Cal.Rptr. 1959–1991; 2d 1991–2003; 3d 2003–) which also cover the decisions of intermediate state appellate courts.

Additional information

Indices of citations are provided by Shepard's Citations while the West American Digest System offers access by hierarchized keywords.

Today, the NRS is the primary publication route for opinions from the federal courts of appeals, the federal district courts, and state appellate courts in many states that currently do not have an official reporter (either because they never had one or abolished it in favor of the NRS). The NRS is available at law libraries throughout the United States, and is also available through online legal research databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis. However, as the NRS now comprises over 10,000 volumes, only the largest law libraries keep a complete hard copy set on site.

While enormous in size and vast in scope, the NRS is not totally comprehensive. In the 1890s, West retroactively brought all pre-1880 published federal cases into the NRS framework by compiling them into the Federal Cases reporter, but never did the same thing with published state cases that predate the start of the NRS regional or state-level reporters. The NRS does not include opinions from state trial courts, courts administered by territorial governments (as distinguished from federal territorial courts), Indian courts, or administrative agencies at either the federal or state level. Certain opinions from federal courts of appeals and federal district courts are not selected or designated for publication. However, all these materials can be found separately on legal research databases.

See also

External links