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Case Law by State: Official Reporters and Free Databases

Every state publishes its appellate opinions differently — some through official reporters, some through West's regional reporters, all increasingly through free databases and the courts' own websites. Here is how state case law gets published and where to find yours.

How State Case Law Gets Published

A state appellate decision typically appears in three places. First as a slip opinion posted on the court’s own website, often the same day it is decided. Then in a reporter — either the state’s official reports, West’s regional reporter for that part of the country, or both. And finally in the databases, free and paid, that researchers actually search: CourtListener, Google Scholar, Justia, Westlaw, and Lexis. (For how those decisions become binding precedent in the first place, see what case law is.)

The practical upshot: for any state, the freshest source is the court’s own opinions page, and the most searchable sources are the free databases, which now cover every state’s appellate courts.

High-Volume States: California, Florida, Texas, New York

California publishes its Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions in the California Official Reports, with slip opinions posted on the judiciary’s site. Our California court records guide covers the court structure and official access points.

New York runs its own official reporting system — the New York Reports for the Court of Appeals plus the Appellate Division and Miscellaneous Reports — and posts decisions through the court system’s law reporting bureau. See the New York guide for the courts and portals.

Texas and Florida both discontinued their own official reporter volumes decades ago; their appellate decisions are published in West’s South Western and Southern regional reporters respectively, while the courts post opinions free on their own sites. Start with our Texas and Florida guides.

State-by-State Case Law Sources (A–Z)

Our court-records guide for each state covers its court structure, the official judiciary site where opinions and case information live, and what is public. Pick your state:

For court records generally — dockets, filings, and case lookups rather than published opinions — see how to look up court records.

Regional Reporters, Explained

West’s National Reporter System divides the country into seven regional reporters that collect state appellate opinions: the Atlantic (A.), North Eastern (N.E.), North Western (N.W.), Pacific (P.), South Eastern (S.E.), South Western (S.W.), and Southern (So.) reporters. The groupings are historical and only loosely geographic — Oklahoma sits in the Pacific Reporter — so do not guess a state’s reporter from a map. When you see a citation like 123 P.3d 456, that is volume 123 of the Pacific Reporter, third series, page 456. Many states, especially those without official reports, treat the regional reporter as the citable source, and a growing number have adopted vendor-neutral “public domain” citation formats keyed to the opinion itself rather than any reporter.

Free vs Official Sources: Which to Cite

For research, free databases are fine — an opinion’s text is the same wherever you read it. Citation is a different matter: courts’ rules typically require citations to the official or designated reporter for that jurisdiction, with page numbers to match. The working pattern is to research in free sources, then convert citations to the required reporter format before filing, and to check the local rules of the specific court for its citation requirements. When accuracy matters, verify the version you quote against the court’s own published copy — free databases occasionally carry OCR errors from scanned volumes.