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HISTORY The problem of finding cases on a particular topic was a large problem for the rapidly growing American legal system of the 19th century. John B. West, the founder of West Publishing, described this problem in his still highly readable article, '' A multiplicity of reports ''. To solve the problem, he developed a system with two major parts. First, his company published cases in many American jurisdictions (West reporters now cover most state and federal courts). Second, he put together a classification system in which he divided the law into major categories which he called topics (such as contracts). He then created hundreds of subcategories. To save space in printing these were given a number called a key number. He then applied this "topic and key number" system to the cases he published. The key number is identified in the books with a key symbol graphic. HOW THE DIGEST SYSTEM WORKS To this day, each case published in a West reporter is evaluated by an editor and summarized. The editor places the summaries of the points of law covered in the case at the beginning of the case. These summaries are usually two or three sentences long, and are called HEADNOTES. Each headnote is then assigned a topic and key number. The headnotes are arranged according to their topic and key number in multi-volume sets of books called Digests. A digest then serves as a subject index to the case law published in West reporters. Matching the mind of the indexer can be challenging, particularly if you are not familiar with the law (reading an overview of your topic in a secondary source such as a journal article may help). Sometimes problems arise because over time legal terminology has changed. Still, the West Digest System stands as the primary classification system of the legal field. West publishes ''West's Analysis of American Law,'' which is a complete guide to the topic and key number system. Some topics, such as Insurance and Taxation have been revised, and there are new topics, such as Child Custody. Periodic versions of ''West's Analysis of American Law'' reflect these changes. USING THE DIGEST In print, a Digest works like an encyclopedia. Look in the "Descriptive Word Index" volumes at the back of the set to get a reference to the main volumes. When you consult the index, you will find under your subject a 1) Topic and 2) Key Number. 1) Find the TOPIC on the spine of the volume(s) from the main set (it will either be right on the spine or will fall between the topics that are listed on the spine). 2) Open the volume and find the topic (if there are multiple topics covered by that volume, 3) Once you are at the topic, find the key number and read the case summaries under that key number. Note the citation to any cases that are relevant to your issue. 4) READ THE CASE! Do not depend upon only the summary. The research method becomes more complicated if you are doing a nationwide search over several decades. About once a month, West publishes a General Digest volume. These are then cumulated into a Decennial Digest. Decennial implies that this occurs every ten years, but in the past several decades, there have been Decennial Digest Parts I and II, so the cumulation is every five years. However, the various Decennial Digests are not cumulated. Thus, one must consult the Decennial Digests, and then update that work with the most recent series of the General Digest. To minimize the number of books that must be consulted, West also publishes various state and federal digests, such as West's Alaska Digest 2d and West's Federal Practice Digest 4th, as well as some digests that are associated with West's topical reporters, such as West's Bankruptcy Digest. Some of these are recumulated back to the first cases in the jurisdiction, while the spines of others indicate that they are from "1933 to date," for instance, indicating that you must consult a prior series for references to earlier cases. The state, federal, and topical digests are updated by pocket parts, replacement volumes, and the occasional new series. THE DIGEST ON WESTLAW You can also search the digest electronically using Westlaw:
Most secondary sources published by Thomson West, such as Corpus Juris Secundum and American Jurisprudence , also have key number hyperlinks in their Westlaw versions. The "Key Numbers and Digest" feature and the hyperlinks create a "Custom Digest." On the Custom Digest search page, you can select the jurisdictions of interest (so that headnotes from cases in those jurisdictions will appear in the results), limit the time frame of the search, and add additional search terms. Because the Westlaw data is merged, there is no need to consult separate series of the digest. Full text of the cases may be accessed from the Custom Digest by clicking on the underlined case citation. The key number search or KeySearch will retrieve entire cases from a case law database. OTHER DIGEST SYSTEMS Other digest systems exist, including Butterworth's Digest for the United Kingdom , the Canadian Abridgement , digests associated with official state reports, such as in California and Wisconsin , and digests associated with topical reporters, such as the Uniform Commercial Code Case Digest. Most of these use a topic and section format, while some, like the U.C.C. Case Digest, use a section format based on the statute or rules being annotated. The A.L.R. Digest, accompanying the American Law Reports , formerly had its own classification system, but was replaced in 2004 by ''West's American Law Reports Digest,'' which follows West's topic and key number system. EXTERNAL REFERENCES
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