a.

Several of the West Digests published correlate directly to the regional reporters
(i.e. Pacific Digest and the Pacific Reporter). Generally, each digest will list the
reporters that it indexes in the front of each volume. West’s key number digest
system also includes digests for some individual courts. Examples of individual
court digests are the United States Supreme Court Digest, which indexes decisions
of the United States Supreme Court; the Federal Digest which indexes cases
decided in the federal courts prior to 1939; the Modern Federal Practice Digest,
covering 1939-1961; West’s Federal Practice Digest Second (a third and fourth series
have also been published for this title); and West’s Bankruptcy Digest.

The American Digest System indexes the decisions published in all of West’s
reporters. It is the “master index” to all of the case law in our country. Currently
this system consists of:

1. Century Digest, 1658-1896

2. Eleven Decennial Digests:

First Decennial Digest, 1897-1906

Second Decennial Digest, 1907-1916
Third Decennial Digest, 1916-1926
Fourth Decennial Digest, 1926-1936
Fifth Decennial Digest, 1936-1946
Sixth Decennial Digest, 1946-1956
Seventh Decennial Digest, 1956-1966
Eighth Decennial Digest, 1966-1976
Ninth Decennial Digest, Part 1, 1976-1981
Ninth Decennial Digest, Part 2, 1981-1986
Tenth Decennial Digest, Part 1, 1986-1991
Tenth Decennial Digest, Part 2, 1991-1996
Eleventh Decennial Digest, Part 1, 1996-2001
Eleventh Decennial Digest, Part 2, 2001-2004
1. General Digest, Eleventh Series, 2004-present

Each of the above digests is a complete index to all state and federal cases
reported during the time period covered.
d. When you have determined which digest you will use, locate it in the library.
With your topic and key number from the “good case” you can find the
appropriate digest volume.

Digest volumes are alphabetically arranged by topics like an encyclopedia. The

spine of each volume will indicate the topics it contains.

e. When you have found the correct volume, turn to your topic and to the section
or key number.

f. Under your key number you will find abstract paragraphs of cases that illustrate
that point of law. Following the text of the paragraph are two citations—one to
the regional reporter and one to the state reporter (if the state has a reporter).

g. After reading the abstract paragraphs you can decide which case(s) is relevant to
your research. You can then look up the case(s) in regional reporters.

h. Don’t forget to check the pocket part under the same topic and key number to
see if there are any new cases on your topic.