Legal Definitions - Southern Reporter

The Southern Reporter is a specialized collection of legal publications that compiles and publishes the official written decisions from the appellate courts in four specific U.S. states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It is a crucial resource for legal professionals, documenting every published appellate court opinion from these states starting in 1887 and continuing to the present day. Published by West Group, it forms a significant part of the larger National Reporter System, which systematically organizes court decisions from across the country.

Here are a few examples illustrating how the Southern Reporter is used:

• Imagine a lawyer in Miami, Florida, preparing for a complex personal injury case. To build a strong argument, they need to find previous court decisions in Florida that dealt with similar circumstances or legal principles. This lawyer would consult the Southern Reporter to locate relevant appellate opinions from Florida courts, using these past rulings as legal precedent to support their client's claim.

• Consider a law student in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is writing a research paper on environmental law. They want to understand how courts in the region have interpreted specific state environmental statutes over time. The student would turn to the Southern Reporter to access actual appellate court decisions from Louisiana, and potentially Mississippi, to analyze judicial trends and reasoning in environmental cases.

• Suppose a paralegal working for a judge in Montgomery, Alabama, is reviewing a legal brief submitted by an attorney. The brief cites a specific Alabama Supreme Court case from the 1960s to support a legal point. To verify the accuracy of the citation and to read the full context of the court's decision, the paralegal would use the Southern Reporter to find that exact case, ensuring the judge has all the necessary information.