Where can you find an analysis of state and federal court
opinions relevant to your specific point of law or fact situation?
Try the American Law Report Series (ALR) consisting
of ALR Federal and, in chronological order, ALR 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th
and 5th located on the 3rd floor.
Each “annotation” focuses on a particular issue, such as grandparents’
visiting rights, and consists of an overview followed by a detailed
analysis with citations to court opinions holding for or against
a particular proposition.
Annotations can be found most easily by using the one volume
index to the ALR 1st Series and the separate multi-volume index
to the rest of the series. Once you find an annotation,
first check the Annotation History Table in the back of the last
index volume and in the pocket part located in the back cover
to determine if your annotation has been superseded or supplemented
by a later annotation. This will save you time.
ALR Digests arranged alphabetically by broad categories of subject
matter with detailed outlines are available, but seldom used.
Law students can also search the ALR database on Westlaw and
the combined ALR/Am.Jur.2d database on Lexis. Neither of
these databases includes ALR 1st annotations, most of which are
obsolete or have been rewritten in the subsequent series.
Remember to update your print annotation as follows:
-
ALR 1st series
Look for your particular ALR citation in each
volume of the ALR Bluebook of Supplemental Decisions.
-
ALR 2d
Look for your particular ALR 2d citation in the volume
and its pocket part (located in the back cover) of the ALR
2d Later Case Service which corresponds to your citation.
-
ALR 3d, 4th, 5th and Federal
Look for your citation in the pocket part located in the
rear cover of the volume where you found your citation.
