View source for Federal Reporter

{{Short description|Case law reporting in US courts}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Use American English|date=October 2023}}
[[File:Federal Reporter 3d.jpg|thumb|right|Federal Reporter, Third Series]]
The '''''Federal Reporter''''' ({{ISSN|1048-3888}}) is a [[case law reporter]] in the [[United States]] that is published by [[West Publishing]] and a part of the [[National Reporter System]].<ref name="OlsonPage185">{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Kent C. |title=Legal Information How to Find It, How to Use it |date=1999 |publisher=Oryx Press |location=Phoenix, Arizona |isbn=9780897749633 |page=185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BP5C6os40ToC&pg=PA185}}</ref> It begins with cases decided in 1880; pre-1880 cases were later retroactively compiled by West Publishing into a separate reporter, ''[[Federal Cases]]''. The fourth and current ''Federal Reporter'' series publishes [[court decision|decisions]] of the [[United States courts of appeals]] and the [[United States Court of Federal Claims]]; prior series had varying scopes that covered decisions of other federal courts as well. Though the ''Federal Reporter'' is an unofficial reporter and West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the United States that legal professionals, including judges, uniformly [[case citation|cite]] to the ''Federal Reporter'' for included decisions.<ref name="BarkanPage68">{{cite book |last1=Barkan |first1=Steven M. |last2=Bintliff |first2=Barbara A. |last3=Whisner |first3=Mary |title=Fundamentals of Legal Research |date=2015 |publisher=Foundation Press |location=St. Paul |isbn=9781609300562 |page=68 |edition=10th}}</ref>  Approximately 30 new volumes are published each year.<ref name="OlsonPage185" />

==Distinctions==

The ''Federal Reporter'' has always published decisions only from federal courts lower than the [[Supreme Court of the United States]], but not the Supreme Court itself.  Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are published in one official reporter and two unofficial reporters, which are, respectively, the ''[[United States Reports]]'', ''Supreme Court Reports'' (a National Reporter System member published by West), and the [[Lawyers' Edition|United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition]].  

Beginning in 1932, West stopped publishing federal district court cases in the ''Federal Reporter'' and began to publish them in a separate reporter, the ''[[Federal Supplement]]''.<ref name="OlsonPage185" />

==Features and print format==
The ''Federal Reporter'' organizes court opinions within each volume by the date of the decision, and includes the full official text of the court's opinion. West editors add headnotes that summarize key principles of law in the cases, and Key Numbers that classify the decisions by topic within the [[West American Digest System]]. 

Only decisions designated by the courts as "for publication"—those with full [[precedent]]ial value for which citation in court filings is permissible—are included in the ''Federal Reporter''. "Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals may be found in the ''[[Federal Appendix]]'', also published by West. New opinions are first issued by West in weekly pamphlets called "Advance Sheets", to be eventually supplanted by the final hardbound, successively numbered volumes. Three series of ''Federal Reporter'' have been published to date, with the fourth series started in June 2021.

==Series==

===''Federal Reporter''===
{| border=0
|-
|Citation: '''F.'''
|-
|Published: 1880–1924 
|-
|Volumes: 300
|-
|Courts covered:
* [[United States Commerce Court|Commerce Court of the United States]] (1911–1913, abolished)
* [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia]] (established in 1893)
* [[Court of Claims (United States)|Court of Claims]]
* [[United States circuit court]]s (abolished in 1912)
* [[United States courts of appeals]] (established in 1891)
* [[United States district courts]]
|}

===''Federal Reporter, Second Series''===
{| border=0
|-
|Citation: '''F.2d'''
|-
|Published: 1924–1993
|-
|Volumes: 999
|-
|Courts covered:
* [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia]] (until 1932)
* [[Court of Claims (United States)|Court of Claims]] (abolished in 1982)
* [[United States Claims Court]]<ref>This court was redesignated as the ''United States Court of Federal Claims'' in 1993.</ref> (established in 1982)
* [[United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals]] (1929–1982)<ref>The United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals was subsequently merged into the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]].</ref>
* [[United States courts of appeals]]
* [[United States district courts]] (until 1932)<ref>United States district court opinions after 1932 are covered in the ''[[Federal Supplement]]'', also published by West.</ref>
* [[United States Emergency Court of Appeals]] (1942–1961)
|-
|Opinions
* [[s:Federal Reporter/Second series|List of opinions from the Federal Reporter, Second Series on Wikisource]]
|}

===''Federal Reporter, Third Series''===
{| border=0
|-
|Citation: '''F.3d'''
|-
|Published: 1993–2021
|-
|Volumes: 999
|-
|Courts covered:
* [[United States Court of Federal Claims]]
* [[United States courts of appeals]]
|-
|Opinions
* [[s:Federal Reporter/Third series|List of opinions from the Federal Reporter, Third Series on Wikisource]]
|}

===''Federal Reporter, Fourth Series''===
{| border=0
|-
|Citation: '''F.4th'''
|-
|Published: 2021–present
|-
|Courts covered:
* [[United States Court of Federal Claims]]
* [[United States courts of appeals]]
|}

==Electronic sources==
{{wikisource}}
The ''Federal Reporter'', including its supplementary material, is also available at websites including [http://openjurist.org OpenJurist.org], on [[CD-ROM]] compilations, and on West's online legal database, [[Westlaw]]. Because individual court cases are identified by [[case citation]]s that consist of printed page and volume numbers, the electronic text of the opinions incorporates the page numbers of the printed volumes with "star pagination"  formatting—the numbers are boldfaced within brackets and with asterisks prepended (i.e.,&nbsp;'''[*4]''') to stand out from the rest of the text.

Though West has [[copyright]] over its original headnotes and keynotes, the opinions themselves are [[public domain]] and accordingly may be found in other sources, chiefly [[LexisNexis#Lexis.com|Lexis]], Westlaw's primary competitor. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has also ruled that Lexis can copy the page numbers from the ''Federal Reporter'' to allow for proper citation without violating West's copyright.<ref>See {{cite court |litigants=Matthew Bender & Co. v. West Publ. Co. |vol=158 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=693  |pinpoint= |court=[[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|2d Cir.]] |date=1999 |url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/1998851158f3d6931777 |accessdate=2022-06-23 |quote=}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{official|https://store.legal.thomsonreuters.com/law-products/Reporters/Federal-Reporterreg-3d-National-Reporter-System/p/100000584}}
[[Category:West (publisher)]]
[[Category:National Reporter System]]