American Law Reports(ALR)

• In this lesson:– What is an ALR annotation?– How are ALRs organized?– How do I update ALR annotations?

American Law Reports(ALR)

What is an ALR annotation?

• American Law Reports’ (ALR) annotations are based upon cases that represent emerging, unsettled or changing areas of the law or legal issues.

• The annotations (often called ‘articles’) are written by legal scholars, using the case as the basis for the annotation. They provide an objective analysis of the current state of the law in this area.

• Articles explore the law of the jurisdictions that have dealt with this issue and include references to cases on both sides of the issue.

In print, American Law Reports are published in series.– Federal Series, Second (ALR Fed 2d) 2005-– Federal Series (ALR Fed.), 1969 to 2005– Sixth Series (ALR6th) 2005-– Fifth Series (ALR5th) 1991 – 2005– Fourth Series (ALR4th) 1980 – 1992– Third Series (ALR3d)* 1965 – 1980– Second Series (ALR2d) * 1948 – 1965– First Series (ALR) * 1919 – 1948

*ALR3d and the earlier series analyze both state and federal issues.

Organization of an ALR Annotation

Features of individual articles1

Total Client-Service Library® and other research references• legal encyclopedias and texts• practice aids• law review articles• electronic search queries• West Key Numbers• ALR Digest

1 Features vary somewhat by series.

Features of individual articles

An Article Outline and Index to topics included in the annotation.

Text of article

Jurisdictional table of cases

Finding Aids in Each Volume

Each recent volume includes– Contents (annotations in the volume)– Subjects Annotated in the volume– Table of Cases reported in the volume– Series 4th - 6th and ALR Fed 2d include

instructions explaining• how to find an article • how to use an article• a graphic showing how to

update an annotation

Finding Aids ALR Indexes

• Multivolume ALR Index

– lists articles by subject matter

– includes all ALR volumes, except those in the First Series

– is updated with annual pocket parts

• ALR Federal Quick Index

• ALR Quick Index for ALR 3rd - 6th series

Finding Aids West’s ALR Digest

• West’s ALR Digest classifies ALR articles according to the West Key Number System, which is divided into more than 700 topics arranged alphabetically.

• Under each topic are headnotes from cases reported in the entire ALR family along with a list of the articles that deal with the particular subject in question.

• The entire ALR series are included in West’s ALR Digest.

Updating ALR Articles

There are two things to check for when updating an ALR annotation:

1. Has the annotation been revised or replaced because of a change in the law (superseded)?

2. Have new cases been decided since the publication of the annotation that relate to this subject?

Updating ALR Articles

• Check the annual supplement in the back of the main volumes in the ALR 3d – 6th, ALR Fed and ALR Fed 2d series to locate citations to more recent relevant cases and new sections .

• Digests of cases are keyed to the correct section of each article.

• ALR2d is kept current by a multivolume ALR2d Later Case Service.

Updating ALR Articles

• Latest Case Service Hotline updates each supplement. The phone number (1-800-225-7488) is printed on the cover of each supplement.

• Annotations are updated weekly on Westlaw.

Superseding and Supplementing Annotations

• The analysis of the law as presented in an early article may be changed by later case law.

• Articles in the first and second series were often supplemented by a later article and the original and the supplementing articles had to be read together.

• Annotation History Table in the last volume of the ALR Index gives the history of articles in all the ALR series.

• KeyCite History on Westlaw also shows whether an ALR articles has been superseded or supplemented.

Superseding Articles

62 ALR4th 16 hassuperseded both75 ALR2d 833 and97 ALR3d 528.

Superseded by

Superseded in Part by

A red KeyCite flag isdisplayed on supersededALR annotations.

ALR on Westlaw

• In the ALR database on Westlaw, there are often very current articles that discuss recent issues of interest that have not yet appeared in the print version.

• To quickly access the Total Client-Service Library, Article (Annotation) Outline or other references, click Document Outline on the Links for tab in the left frame of the retrieved ALR article. (See next slide.)

• Sample query in ALR Database: ti(“social host” /s liab!)

• In the print ALR volumes, the lead case precedes the article or, in ALR5th, all cases are printed at the end of the volume.

• You can use the Find service on Westlaw to retrieve either the ALR lead case or the ALR article.

Find 62 alr4th 1 - retrieves the caseFind 62 alr4th 16 - retrieves the article

• The ALR case citation is a parallel citation to the state, regional, or federal reporter citation.

• On Westlaw, the lead case is not in the ALR database. It can be found in the appropriate state, regional, or federal case database(s).

Accessing ALR Features on Westlaw

Click Document Outline on the Links for tab to display online finding aids for each ALR article.