The Law Library has several major sets of West Digests:
The United States Supreme Court Digest, used to locate United States Supreme Court cases, is located on the Second Floor next to the Supreme Court Reporter in the Federal Case Law Room, at KF 101 .1 U55. Each volume is updated with a pocket part.
There are five editions of the Federal Practice Digest, used to locate Federal cases:
- Federal Digest (1754 to 1939) (red)
- Modern Federal Practice Digest (1939 to 1960) (green)
- West's Federal Practice Digest 2d (1961 to 1975) (medium blue)
- West's Federal Practice Digest 3d (1975 to 1992) (burgundy)
- West's Federal Practice Digest 4th (1992 to the present ) (navy)
The Library only has the West's Federal Practice Digest 4th, located in Compact Shelving on the Second Floor at KF 127 .W48. Its volumes are updated with pocket parts. The Library cancelled the West's Federal Practice Digest 4th in 2006.
The Regional Digests are used to locate state cases. There are four editions:
- Atlantic Digest
- South Eastern Digest
- North Western Digest
- Pacific Digest
The Regional Digests are updated with pocket parts. The Library only has the Pacific Digest in print and it is located on the Second Floor in Compact Shelving, at KF 135 P21 W4. The Library cancelled the Pacific Digest in 2004.
State Digests are available for states not covered by a Regional Digest (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas) and California. State Digests are updated with pocket parts, pamphlets, and replacement volumes.
The Library has West's California Digest, located on the First Floor at KFC 57 .W47.
Digests are arranged alphabetically by topic. Examples of the approximately 400 topics are: Banks and Banking, Franchises, Insurance, Libel and Slander, Partnership, Schools, and Trade Regulation.
Each topic is divided into subtopics known as "key numbers." A complete list of topic headings is available in the front of each digest volume. A complete list of key numbers is available at the beginning of each topic.
Locate a topic and key number that interests you by scanning the list of topic headings and key numbers or by using the Descriptive Word Index at the end of each set of digests.
Read the case summaries that are listed under each topical key number. A case citation follows each summary. This citation will be composed of a volume number, an abbreviation that indicates the "reporter," or series of books that contains the case you need, and the page where your case begins. Examples are "804 S.W.2d 1281" and "786 F.2d 495." Some cases can be found in more than one reporter; therefore more than one citation may be listed.
See the list of abbreviations and locations of case reporters below to locate the reporter that contains your case.
If you have the name of a caseand the jurisdiction in which it was decided, you can find the citation to your case using the Table of Cases volume of the digest covering that jurisdiction. Some digests also have a Defendant-Plaintiff Table volume, where cases are listed alphabetically by defendant instead of plaintiff. These volumes are located at the end of the set.
Abbreviations and Locations of Case Reporters
Regional Reporters containing appellate level cases from the 50 states are located on the Second Floor in Compact Shelving. The Library cancelled all Regional Reporters in 2004.
A., A.2d Atlantic Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia.
N.E., N.E.2d Northeastern Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York & Ohio.
N.W., N.W.2d Northwestern Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota & Wisconsin.
P., P.2d Pacific Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington & Wyoming.
S.E., S.E.2d Southeastern Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia & West Virginia.
So., So.2d Southern Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana & Mississippi.
S.W., S.W.2d Southwestern Reporter, 1st or 2nd series: Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.
Federal Reporters containing federal cases are located on the Second Floor in the Federal Case Law Room:
F., F.2d, F.3d Federal Reporter, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd series: United States Circuit Court of Appeals Decisions.
F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d Federal Supplement, 1st or 2d series: United States District (trial) Court Decisions.
U.S., S.Ct., L.Ed. United States Reports (official), Supreme Court Reporter (West), United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition (LEXIS): Supreme Court Decisions. The Library cancelled the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition, in 2006.
updated 4/2011 kb