• 10-30-2019 | 02:18 PM
• Author: Nicole DiNatale

Librarian Relations Consultant Research Tip: Refining case law search results to reported or unreported decisions

The Lexis Advance service gives you the ability to filter your case results using the Publication Status filter. By using this filter, you can choose between Reported and Unreported. Keep in mind, if your results are from California state courts only, your choices will be Published and Unpublished. If your results list contains cases from multiple jurisdictions including California, you will see the Reported and Unreported options.

In Lexis Advance, unpublished and unreported are viewed as different kinds of cases.

An unreported case indicates that a case is not published in a physical copy reporter series.

A published case can be unreported, for example, when these hard copy reporters’ editors chose not to include a case, yet the court did not limit citations to it or the publication status for the opinion.

For unpublished cases, remember these four factors:

1. The court has a citation limit on the opinion (usually the document will contain some indication that has clear instructions for when the case can and cannot be cited to or a reference to a rule from the court for more explanation).
2. The court declared the opinion not citable.
3. The opinion will not be released to the public from the court.
4. A notice describing the case as unpublished was included when LexisNexis® received it.

Usually with unpublished cases, Lexis Advance will include a notification for the case stating that it is unpublished or not citable, and that language will depend on how it is stated by the court.