The written, published opinions of courts are contained in law books.
These published opinions constitute what is known as case law.
Finding a court opinion in a law book is easy.
The opinions in these books are identified by their case citations.
-A case citation begins with the name of the case.
-Next comes the volume number of the book in which the opinion can be found,
-followed by the abbreviated name of the book,
-followed by the page number.
-Last, in parentheses, is the year of the decision.
Example:
-A citation of State v. Ramseur, 106 N.J. 123 (1987), means that the opinion is in volume 106, on page 123, and that the case was decided in 1987.