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Quasi-regional Reporters

JoanShear | 14 May, 2007 13:56

Question: I have this New York state case and I can't find it. It is on Lexis and Westlaw, but it is from 1963 and there is no PDF. It is a low level court, maybe just a trial court decision. I need to look at it for a cite check. Do we have it?

Answer: This case is reported in the New York Supplement. The student had looked in the New York section of the state materials, assuming this was an official reporter. The New York Supplement, like the California Reporter, is really part of the national reporter system. They are offshoots of the North Eastern Reporter and the Pacific Reporter, respectively. Because New York and California are such large states with so much litigation, West Publishing Company decided to only print the cases from their highest courts in the regional reporters, and to print the decisions of their lower courts as well as their highest courts in these new quasi-regional reporters. Some libraries shelve them with the state materials, since they only contain cases from a single state. Others, like us, shelve them with the regional reporters, since they are part of the national reporter system. Either way, a catalog check would have led the student to where this library shelves that set.


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