http://melissawiley.com/blog/2008/03/10/resolution-introduced-reverse-court-ruling/ Children's Book Author Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:08:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://melissawiley.com/blog/2008/03/10/resolution-introduced-reverse-court-ruling/#comment-6528 Amy C. Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:10:25 +0000 http://melissawiley.com/blog/2008/03/10/resolution-introduced-reverse-court-ruling/#comment-6528 Just an fyi, hope it helps: Reversal means a higher court reviews the case and says that the lower court’s decision is wrong (in whole or in part). The higher court’s opinion is the controlling word on the issue at hand, and any time the issue comes up in the future, lawyers are required to cite the opinion as precedent. It’s a definitive statement about the lower court’s ruling. Depublishing means that the opinion is still public record, but is not controlling in future cases; that is, lawyers don’t have to cite it when the issue comes up again. But they can cite it. Before everything was online, this was a much stronger distinction: unpublished cases were only found down at the courthouse, not in the books on the shelves of the law library, so you’d have to do a lot of work to cite an unpublished case. Today it’s easy to track down unpublished cases, so they’re easier to cite. So while depublishing is still a useful distinction (a brief citing an unpublished case would note that it’s not a controlling case, though still hoping that the opinion will be persuasive), it’s a lesser distinction. Just an fyi, hope it helps: Reversal means a higher court reviews the case and says that the lower court’s decision is wrong (in whole or in part). The higher court’s opinion is the controlling word on the issue at hand, and any time the issue comes up in the future, lawyers are required to cite the opinion as precedent. It’s a definitive statement about the lower court’s ruling. Depublishing means that the opinion is still public record, but is not controlling in future cases; that is, lawyers don’t have to cite it when the issue comes up again. But they can cite it. Before everything was online, this was a much stronger distinction: unpublished cases were only found down at the courthouse, not in the books on the shelves of the law library, so you’d have to do a lot of work to cite an unpublished case. Today it’s easy to track down unpublished cases, so they’re easier to cite. So while depublishing is still a useful distinction (a brief citing an unpublished case would note that it’s not a controlling case, though still hoping that the opinion will be persuasive), it’s a lesser distinction.

]]> http://melissawiley.com/blog/2008/03/10/resolution-introduced-reverse-court-ruling/#comment-6457 Jennifer Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:42:08 +0000 http://melissawiley.com/blog/2008/03/10/resolution-introduced-reverse-court-ruling/#comment-6457 Iiiiinteresting. I enjoy hearing your thoughts on this. Iiiiinteresting. I enjoy hearing your thoughts on this.

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