Brief introduction to legal digests - part of an orientation

1. DIGESTS
An Introduction

2. Digests organize thousands of cases and
millions of points of law by subject
• If you know what point of law you’re looking for, you can
go straight to a digest

3. Different publishers=different systems
• The West digests have been the industry standard for
many years
• Lexis has developed its own version
• This presentation uses the Illinois Digest 2d by West
• Let’s look at two ways to find information:
• 1 - Use the index
OR
• 2 - The “One good case” method

4. Use the index
The index
helps you
identify
correct
terminology

5. Use the index
And helps
you
identify
subtopics

6. Remember, if you’re sure about your search terms, you
can go right to the volume you need

7. The “One good case” method
• If you can find a case in a case reporter on the correct
topic, you can use the headnote or topic and key number
(found at the beginning of the text) which corresponds to
your point of law
• Then you look at this topic in the print digest (or in
Westlaw)

8. Here’s our “one good case” from
the North Eastern Reporter
Headnote #6 identifies the
topic “Libel and Slander” and
key number 1.
After you read the paragraph,
and you decide this is the
point of law you need….

9. Go to the digest and look up that topic
and key number [Libel & Slander, key
number 1] …
to find a list of controlling cases
that deal with that point of law
[Nature and elements of
defamation in general]

10. Summary
• Digests organize cases and points of law by subject
• Use the index if you don’t have good search terms
• Use headnotes/topics & key numbers if you’ve found that
“one good case”
• Digests are not just for case law; they contain references
to secondary sources, too:
• ALR (American Law Reports)
• Legal encyclopedias
• Law reviews