Legal Definitions - N.E.

N.E. is an abbreviation for the North Eastern Reporter. This is a specific series of legal publications that compiles and publishes the official written decisions, known as opinions, from the appellate courts of several states in the northeastern United States. These states typically include Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. Legal professionals use the North Eastern Reporter to find and cite important legal precedents established by these courts, which are binding or persuasive authority in future cases.

Here are some examples illustrating the use of the North Eastern Reporter:

• Imagine a lawyer in Chicago, Illinois, is preparing a legal brief for a client involved in a business dispute. To support their argument, they need to cite a previous ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court that established a key principle of contract law. The lawyer would locate this specific case within the volumes of the North Eastern Reporter, which contains the full text of that court's decisions. The citation they provide in their brief would include "N.E." (e.g., 123 N.E.2d 456), directing the judge and opposing counsel to the exact location of the precedent-setting opinion.

• During a complex property dispute in an Ohio courtroom, one attorney wishes to reference a landmark decision made by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts many years ago regarding easements. To properly inform the court and opposing counsel about this persuasive authority, the attorney would provide the case's citation, which would include the "N.E." abbreviation. This indicates that the full text of the Massachusetts court's reasoning can be found in the North Eastern Reporter, allowing all parties to review the original judicial opinion.

• A legal scholar is writing an article on the historical development of tort law in New York during the early 20th century. To understand how appellate courts in New York interpreted negligence and liability during that period, the scholar would consult the relevant volumes of the North Eastern Reporter from those specific years. These volumes contain the actual decisions of the New York Court of Appeals, providing direct insight into the judicial landscape and the evolution of legal principles over time.