New York Official Reports: Operations

Contents:

• How do I contact the Law Reporting Bureau?
• What is the Law Reporting Bureau?
• What are the Official Reports?
• Where can I find the Official Reports?
• How is a decision selected for publication in the Miscellaneous Reports?
• Who may submit a decision for publication consideration in the Miscellaneous Reports?
• What decisions does the Law Reporting Bureau publish on its website?
• What are “Trial Orders”?
• Are decisions edited for publication?
• How are decisions cited?
• Who do I contact regarding a subscription to the Official Reports?
• How do I get a copy of the New York Law Reports Style Manual?
• How do I get a certified copy of an opinion?
• Is there a fee for accessing decisions?
• How do I get permission to copy an opinion?
• Should personal information about the parties in decisions be redacted?

1. How do I contact the Law Reporting Bureau?
   • Address: 17 Lodge Street, Albany, NY 12207
   • Phone: (518) 453-6900
   • Reporter Email: Reporter@nycourts.gov
   • Subscription Email: LRBpublications@nycourts.gov
2. What is the Law Reporting Bureau?

   The Law Reporting Bureau, established under article 14 of the Judiciary Law, publishes the decisions of the courts of New York State in the Official Reports. An agency of the New York State Unified Court System, the Law Reporting Bureau is managed by the State Reporter, who is appointed by the Court of Appeals. The Law Reporting Bureau does not offer legal advice, recommend or discipline attorneys, perform legal research, or draft legislation for the State of New York. For more information, see Law Reporting Bureau History.

3. What are the Official Reports?

   Pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431, the Law Reporting Bureau publishes: (1) all decisions of the Court of Appeals (including motion decisions); (2) all decisions of the four Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court; and (3) select decisions of the trial courts and the Appellate Terms of the First and Second Departments. The Official Reports refers to the publication of these decisions in the New York Reports (Court of Appeals), Appellate Division Reports, and Miscellaneous Reports (trial court and Appellate Term decisions). For more information, see About the Official Reports.

4. Where can I find the Official Reports?

   The Official Reports are available (1) in print in the New York Reports (Court of Appeals), Appellate Division Reports, and Miscellaneous Reports (trial court and Appellate Term decisions), (2) online on the Law Reporting Bureau’s free, public access website, and (3) commercially in Thomson Reuters Westlaw (pursuant to a statutorily required publishing contract). For more information, see Electronic Resources User Guide.

5. How is a decision selected for publication in the Miscellaneous Reports?

   The State Reporter is authorized by statute to selectively publish trial court and Appellate Term decisions in the print Miscellaneous Reports (see Judiciary Law § 431). The State Reporter uses criteria set out in the Judiciary Law to determine which decisions to publish in full text in the Miscellaneous Reports. Because of the constraints of print publication, the Law Reporting Bureau can only publish a limited number of opinions in full text in the Miscellaneous Reports each year. However, if a decision is not selected for print publication, it will be published in full text online, and an abstract of the decision will be published in the Miscellaneous Reports. For more information, see Selection of Opinions for Publication in the Miscellaneous Reports.

6. Who may submit a decision for publication consideration in the Miscellaneous Reports?

   The Law Reporting Bureau relies on judges to submit their decisions in the first instance for print publication consideration in the Miscellaneous Reports. However, any interested party or counsel may bring a decision to the attention of the State Reporter using the Law Reporting Bureau’s Submission Procedures. Electronic copies of decisions should be emailed to Reporter@nycourts.gov.

7. What decisions does the Law Reporting Bureau publish on its website?

   The Law Reporting Bureau publishes all Official Reports materials online in the New York Slip Opinion Service and in the New York Official Reports Service. For more information, see Official Reports Decisions.

   In addition, the Law Reporting Bureau publishes the following decisions online in the New York Slip Opinion Service (these decisions are not available in the Official Reports):

   • Motion decisions of the four Appellate Division Departments (First Department, Second Department, Third Department, Fourth Department.)
   • Motion decisions of the Appellate Terms of the First Department and Second Department.
   • Select trial level decisions (“Trial Orders”) that are not published in the Official Reports. For more information, see VIII., below).

   For more information, see Slip Opinion Service.

8. What are “Trial Orders”?

   Trial Orders is the term used by the Law Reporting Bureau to refer to trial level decisions that are not published in the Miscellaneous Reports but are published on the Law Reporting Bureau’s website in the New York Slip Opinion Service. Trial Orders are acquired by the Law Reporting Bureau through Unified Court System databases and through an automated acquisition process with our publisher. In all instances, Trial Orders are authenticated using a Unified Court System database.

   Trial Orders are published as PDFs on the Law Reporting Bureau’s website. Trial Orders can be distinguished from decisions published in the Miscellaneous Reports because their slip opinion number begins with a “3” -- i.e., 2023 NY Slip Op 34894(U). The “3” indicates the decision is a Trial Order published in PDF on the Law Reporting Bureau website and not published in print—either full text or abstract form—in the Miscellaneous Reports.

9. Are decisions edited for publication?

   All decisions published in full text in the Official Reports are edited by Law Reporting Bureau attorney editors using the New York Law Reports Style Manual. The Style Manual provides uniformity for key elements of all New York decisions, resulting in a more cohesive, easier to understand body of decisional law for use by the bench, the bar and the public at large. Attorney editors also prepare headnotes for these decisions using the Official Reports Digest classification scheme. For more information, see Editorial Procedures.

   Trial level and Appellate Term decisions published in abstract form in the Miscellaneous Reports are not edited for publication, and no headnotes are provided, but the opinions are classified by subject in accordance with the Official Reports Digest classification scheme.

10. How are decisions cited?

    New York State court decisions should be cited to the Official Reports, when available (see CPLR 5529 [e]).

    The Official Reports are divided into three series:

    • New York Reports (e.g., NY, NY2d and NY3d), containing the decisions of the state's High Court, the Court of Appeals;
    • Appellate Division Reports (e.g., App Div, AD2d and AD3d), containing the decisions of the state's four Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court; and
    • Miscellaneous Reports (e.g., Misc, Misc 2d and Misc 3d), containing select trial court and Appellate Term decisions.

    Decisions should be cited using the official case name followed by the Official Reports citation. Official case names can be found (1) on the Law Reporting Bureau’s website in the Official Case Name and Citation Locator, (2) in the Table of Cases of the bound volume in which the decision appears, and (3) in the "Cite Title As" field in the New York Official Reports content category on Thomson Reuters Westlaw.

    • Matter of Lazalee v Wegman's Food Mkts., Inc., 40 NY3d 458 (2023)
    • Matter of Town of Copake v New York State Off. of Renewable Energy Siting, 216 AD3d 93 (3d Dept 2023)
    • People v Smith, 80 Misc 3d 395 (Sup Ct, NY County 2023)

    All decisions published by the Law Reporting Bureau – including those published in the Official Reports and those which are published only online -- are also assigned an official slip opinion citation (e.g., 2024 NY Slip Op 00001). The initial number denotes the year of decision. The second is a unique serial number assigned to each decision for that particular year. Use the slip opinion citation for officially published cases that have not yet been assigned a permanent Official Reports citation, but use the Official Reports citation once it is available.

    Slip opinion citations for decisions which are not published in the Official Reports have a "(U)" suffix:

    • Appellate Division and Appellate Term motion decisions:
      2024 NY Slip Op 64325(U)
    • Trial Orders:
      2023 NY Slip Op 34894(U)

    Trial court and Appellate Term decisions published in abstract in the Official Reports have both a Misc 3d citation, which corresponds to the abstract, and a NY Slip Op citation, which corresponds to the full text of the opinion:

    • 77 Misc 3d 1230(A), 2022 NY Slip Op 51333(U)

    For more information on how to cite decisions, see the New York Law Reports Style Manual.

11. Who do I contact regarding a subscription to the Official Reports?

    For Judges, correspondence regarding subscriptions should be addressed to:

    Law Reporting Bureau
    Attn: Judges' Subscriptions
    17 Lodge Street
    Albany, NY 12207
    LRBpublications@nycourts.gov

    For everyone else, correspondence regarding subscriptions should be addressed to:

    Thomson Reuters
    610 Opperman Drive
    Eagan, MN 55123

12. How do I get a copy of the New York Law Reports Style Manual?

    The Law Reports Style Manual is available for use and download on the Law Reporting Bureau’s website (New York Law Reports Style Manual). Information concerning the availability of print copies may be obtained from the Law Reporting Bureau by email (LRBpublications@nycourts.gov), or using the contact information listed above, in I.

13. How do I get a certified copy of an opinion?

    To obtain a certified copy of an opinion, submit an email to Reporter@nycourts.gov with the Official Reports citation. You will be invoiced for a photocopying fee of 50¢ per page and a certification fee of 25¢ per opinion. Since certification requires coordination among several officials, please allow as much time as possible. For expedited delivery, provide your delivery service billing number with your request.

14. Is there a fee for accessing decisions?

    There is no charge for access to decisions found on the Law Reporting Bureau website in the New York Slip Opinion Service or Official Reports Service. For more information, see Decisions.

15. How do I get permission to copy an opinion?

    Judiciary Law § 438 (Copyright of notes prepared by Law Reporting Bureau) provides:

    "The copyright of the statement of facts, of the head notes and of all other notes or references prepared by the law reporting bureau must be taken by and shall be vested in the secretary of state for the benefit of the people of the state. The secretary of state is authorized by a writing filed in his [or her] office to grant to any person, firm or corporation, under such terms and conditions as he [or she] and the chief judge of the state of New York may determine to be for the best interests of the state, the right to publish the above mentioned copyrighted matter."

    For more information, please email Reporter@nycourts.gov

16. Should personal information about the parties in decisions be redacted?

    Decisions submitted for publication consideration should adhere to the Law Reporting Bureau’s Privacy Guidelines which are derived from various statutes and Unified Court System policies.

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