But how are their decisions to be known?

HISTORY OF LAW REPORTING

Law Reporting benefits quote

While the Official Reports of the New York City Superior Court had been issued since 1828, and those of the New York City Court of Common Pleas since 1850, there was as yet no statewide system for the publication of the decisions of the lower courts. Concern over the multiplicity of unofficial reports led to a broad condemnation of the "evils" of law reporting, and to a Bar Association proposal to place law reporting under control of a council modeled after the English Council of Law Reporting. These concerns were assuaged, in 1892, by legislation (L 1892, ch 598) creating the office of Miscellaneous Reporter. This new office was charged with reporting the opinions of all courts of record, other than the Court of Appeals and the General Terms of the Supreme Court, as were deemed to be in the public interest to be published. The Miscellaneous Reports soon commenced publication.

Left:
1874 Albany Law Journal report of the Bar Association's scheme of Law Reporting.

   With the creation of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1894, the Appellate Division Reports supplanted the Supreme Court Reports and were published by the Supreme Court Reporter.
   The 1894 Constitution also created the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court, and from the beginning its opinions were reported in the Miscellaneous Reports. (A later legislative requirement that the Miscellaneous Reports include all Appellate Term opinions involving a question of law proved unworkable and was removed.)
   Advance sheets combining the reports of the reporters’ offices were authorized by 1894 legislation.
    An 1896 rule required that "[a]ll cases cited in the briefs from the courts of this state shall be cited from the reports of the official reporters."
   Thus, as the nineteenth century came to a close, the tripartite system of official statewide reporting of the decisions of New York’s courts was in place, and the preeminence of the Official Reports was firmly established.

Above:
March 12, 1898 combined New York Advance Sheet No. 253, with the original recipient tag for delivery to Marcus T. Hun, 25 North Peral St. Albany, N.Y.

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