Finding Cases using the American Law Reports

The American Law Reports (ALR) is an invaluable resource for case law research. The ALR contains articles called annotations which summarize the law on a particular issue. For an area of law which is case driven, ALR offers the unique function of providing cases that fall on opposite sides of an issue. Annotations are also useful because they provide citations to primary materials (cases, statutes, regulations) and/or secondary materials (texts, forms, law review articles, etc.).

Step One: Choose a Topic
Step Two: Consult the "INDEX" volumes
Step Three: Look up the Annotation in the ALR set
Step Four: Update your Research
Step Five: Find your Cases

The American Law Reports has been published in seven series: A.L.R.-A.L.R. 6th and A.L.R. Federal. Up to A.L.R. 3rd, the American Law Reports contained references to both state and federal cases. Starting with A.L.R.4th, the federal cases were moved to A.L.R. federal.

Step One: Choose your Topic.

Before using this set, make sure that you have an idea about what it is you want to write about. If you don't know what you want to write about, you can get ideas by browsing one of the two legal encyclopedias, American Jurisprudence 2d or Corpus Juris Secundum, each of which has a general index at the end. American Jurisprudence 2d includes references to cases and to ALR annotations. See the guide on Using Legal Encyclopedias for more information.

Step Two: Consult the "INDEX" volumes at the end of the set.

For example, if you are writing a paper on whether a hotel is liable for the loss of a guest's belongings, start by looking in the "Hotel" section in the Index. If you do not find anything under this topic, think of other terms where your topic may be. For example, also look under "Hospitality" or "Innkeepers".

As an alternative, you may use the A.L.R. Digest to research your topic. See our guide on Finding Cases using the West Digest System to learn how to use this resource.

Step Three: Look up the Annotation (Article) in the ALR set.

Once you have found an annotation (ie., ALR article) on your research topic, use the citation given to look up the annotation in the set.

TIP: There are now seven series within the ALR. These are represented as ALR, ALR 2d, ALR 3d, ALR 4th, ALR 5th, ALR 6th, and ALR Fed. The number at the beginning of the citation represents the volume within the series, and the number at the end represents the page number.

E.g., You might find an annotation that looks relevant to your research that is cited as: 45 ALR 4th 336. To find this annotation, look at volume 45 of the ALR 4th series, at page 336.

TIP: The higher the ALR series, the more current the annotation will be. In other words, annotations appearing in the ALR 6th series will be more current than those contained in the ALR 2nd series. The later series are also easier to update.

Step Four: Update your research.

Once you have found an annotation that covers the material you want to write on, look in the back of the book in the pocket part. By comparing the pages of your article with the page numbers at the top of the pocket part, you will be able to locate cases relevant to your article which were decided after the annotation was written.

Step Five: Find your cases.

Each annotation contains short descriptions of cases on which the author bases his or her analysis. At the end of each case description, there will be a citation to the case which has just been described. For example, you will notice something like the following: James v. Sullivan, 737 S.W.2d 304 (1987). At this point, you can read the case by finding volume 737 of the Southwestern Reporter, Second Series at page 304.

To interpret case citations, see Frequently Used Case Reporter Abbreviations or use Quick Tips for Deciphering Legal Citations for other types of citations.