Digests for State and Federal Jurisdictions
The following is a summary of the digests available at the Pappas Law Library. Please remember that digests only include reported cases. Trial level decisions are generally not reported and thus not indexed in the digest.
Research Tip: Read the introductory matter of the appropriate digest to determine how cases are arranged within the topics and key numbers of that digest.
Individual state digests: These digests will help you locate the decisions of a particular state. All individual state digests are shelved following the appropriate state's reporters.
Regional digests: These digests cover the decisions of multiple states, by West reporter region. The regional digests are shelved following the appropriate regional reporter.
Federal digests: These digests provide access to the decisions of the federal courts. Federal digests covering cases from 1939-present are shelved in the Pappas reading room.
All inclusive digests: These digests provide access to all state and federal cases.
Individual State Digests
The Pappas Law Library maintains digests for the New England states (MA, CT, ME, NH, RI, VT), California and Vermont. Many other states are covered in the Regional Digests. For those states not covered in a regional digest, consult an all inclusive digest.
Regional Digests
Only some regional reporters have a corresponding digest. For those that do not, you would need to consult an all inclusive digest or the individual digests for the states in that reporter. Consult the table of regional reporters to determine which states are in the regional reporters that do not have corresponding digests.
Atlantic Digest: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
North Western Digest: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin
Pacific Digest: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
South Eastern Digest: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia
Federal Digests
Note that federal digests are roughly divided by date coverage, so it is essential to use the digest that covers the appropriate time period. There is an overlap between the 3rd and 4th series of West's Federal Practice Digest. To locate all cases decided from December 1975 to 1983, you must use both digests.
- United States Supreme Court Digest: Supreme Court cases only.
- Federal Digest: All federal cases prior to 1939.
- Modern Federal Practice Digest: All federal cases 1939-1960
- West's Federal Practice Digest, 2nd: All federal cases 1961-November 1975
- West's Federal Practice Digest, 3rd: All federal cases December 1975 - until the beginning of West's Federal Practice Digest, 4th
- West's Federal Practice Digest, 4th: All federal cases December 1975-present
All Inclusive Digests
Century Digest: This digest covers cases from 1658-1896.
Decennial Digest: This digest covers 10 year periods starting in 1897 through 1996. The Eleventh Decennial Digest Part 1 covers 1996-2001. For cases from 2001-2004, use the General Digest.
General Digest (10th series, 2001-2004): To quickly determine which volumes you need to consult within the current series, look at the Table of Key Numbers in the latest volume.
For digest searching past 2004, use Westlaw (BULaw only) or consult a reference librarian.
Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: March 2009