The Reporter of Decisions (sometimes known by other titles, such as Official Reporter or State Reporter) is the official responsible for publishing the decisions of a

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

. Traditionally, the decisions were published in books known as case reporters or

law reports A or is a compilation of judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. These reports serve as published records of judicial decisions that are cited by lawyers and judges for their use as precedent in subsequent cases. Hi ...

. In recent years, the reporter's duties have been broadened in many jurisdictions to include publication through electronic media. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the most prominent Reporter of Decisions is the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, an officer of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, responsible for reporting the decisions of that court in the official report volumes, known as the ''

United States Reports The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record (law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, orders, case tables (list of every case decided), in alphabetical order both by the name of the petitioner ( ...

''. In contrast, the United States courts of appeals have not historically appointed official reporters of decisions, relying instead on the private company

West Publishing West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West has ...

to report appellate decisions in its ''

Federal Reporter The ''Federal Reporter'' () is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing and a part of the National Reporter System. It begins with cases decided in 1880; pre-1880 cases were later retroactively compiled b ...

'' series. In many jurisdictions, older collections of case reports are known by the name of the reporter who served during the time when they were collected.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reporter Of Decisions Legal professions