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New York Official Reports: Statutes & Regulations

Judiciary Law article 14—Law Reporting

Civil Practice Law and Rules article 55—Appeals

Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York
Title 22, Part 500—Rules of Practice of the Court of Appeals

Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York
Title 22, Part 510—Rules of the Court of Appeals in Capital Cases

Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York
Title 22, Part 7300—State Reporter

Statutes

Judiciary Law article 14—Law Reporting

§ 430. Law reporting bureau; state reporter

There is hereby created and established the law reporting bureau of the state of New York. The bureau shall be under the direction and control of a state reporter, who shall be appointed and be removable by the court of appeals by an order entered in its minutes. The state reporter shall be assisted by a first deputy state reporter and such other deputy state reporters and such staff as may be necessary, all of whom shall be appointed and be removable by the court of appeals.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1.)

§ 431. Causes to be reported

The law reporting bureau shall report every cause determined in the court of appeals and every cause determined in the appellate divisions of the supreme court, unless otherwise directed by the court deciding the cause; and, in addition, any cause determined in any other court which the state reporter, with the approval of the court of appeals, considers worthy of being reported because of its usefulness as a precedent or its importance as a matter of public interest.

Each reported decision shall be published as soon as practicable after it is rendered.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1.)

§ 432. Copies of opinions, decisions and papers to be furnished to state reporter

With the exception of court of appeals and appellate division causes directed not to be reported, as provided in section four hundred thirty-one of this article, the judges or justices of every court of record, including surrogates, shall promptly cause to be delivered to the state reporter, without charge, a copy of every written opinion rendered in causes determined therein. The judges or justices of the court of appeals and of the appellate divisions and the appellate terms of the supreme court shall, in addition, cause to be delivered to the state reporter, without charge, a list of all decisions rendered by the respective courts, together with copies of such points of counsel and records and papers on appeal, if practicable, as the state reporter may require.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1; amended L 1939, ch 138.)

§ 433. Contents of reports

The law reporting bureau shall prepare and publish with the reports the usual headnotes, tables and indexes and in the report of every cause determined in the court of appeals and the appellate divisions of the supreme court the name of the judge or justice who presided at the hearing or trial of such cause in the court of original jurisdiction. The report of a cause, in addition to the opinion, or opinions shall contain as much of the facts, arguments of counsel, decision, or any other matter in the cause as the state reporter shall deem necessary.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1; amended L 1938, ch 195.)

§ 433-a. Printing and publication of reports

Causes determined in the court of appeals shall be published and printed in bound volumes entitled "New York Reports". Causes determined in the appellate divisions of the supreme court shall be published and printed in bound volumes entitled "Appellate Division Reports Supreme Court". Causes determined in any other court shall be printed and published in bound volumes entitled "Miscellaneous Reports".

Such reports shall contain all of the matter prepared and published by the law reporting bureau pursuant to the provisions of section four hundred thirty-three of the judiciary law.

The legislature may appropriate such state moneys as may be necessary to secure the printing and publications of said reports in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(Added L 1950, ch 820, § 2.)

§ 434. Contracts for publication of reports

1. The printing and publication of the court of appeals reports, the appellate division reports, the miscellaneous reports and the combined official series shall be done under contract as hereinafter provided.

2. Said contract shall be let and said publication shall be made by and under the direction of the state reporter.

3. In each year immediately preceding the expiration of the contract to be let as hereinafter provided, the state reporter shall give notice that a contract will be let for said printing and publication, together with a reference to this section, and that on or before the first day of April in such year, the state reporter will receive sealed proposals for such contract. Such notice shall be given beginning in the first week of January in the procurement opportunities newsletter published by the commissioner of economic development pursuant to section one hundred forty-two of the economic development law.

4. Said contract shall be let to the person who will publish and sell said reports and said combined official series, together with the weekly advance sheets thereof, and furnish the required copies to the various state and county officials, on terms deemed by said state reporter most advantageous to the public and the state, regard being had to the proper execution of the work. Said contract shall be let not earlier than the first of May, nor later than the first of June, in such years.

5. (a) Said contract shall require the contractor to continue to publish such reports and the combined official series thereof (with weekly advance sheets thereof to be published as early as practicable after the decisions of said courts shall be handed down), and shall fix the prices at which said publications and each of them, in the various styles of binding and weights and quality of paper, and the sizes and the number of pages of each, shall be delivered within the state of New York.

(b) Said contract also shall provide that the contractor may produce and market such reports and the combined official series thereof in any medium or format, besides bound volumes and printed advance sheets, including but not limited to microfiche, ultrafiche, on-line computer retrieval data base, and CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory), subject to prior approval by the state reporter and the chief judge of the court of appeals.

6. Said contract shall require the contractor to furnish the state library with fifty-eight copies of the court of appeals and appellate division reports and three copies of the miscellaneous reports, and also to furnish copies of each of said publications as follows: One of each to the clerk of each county, for the use of the county; one of each to the attorney general, for the use of his office; one of each to the state comptroller, for the use of his office; one of each to the clerk of the court of appeals, for the use of that court, and one of each to each judge or justice of a court of record, for the use of his office; and one of each to the various public law libraries in the state, and the expense of delivery thereof shall be borne by the state.

7. Publication under said contract shall commence on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-one, and shall continue until December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-five (unless said contract is previously annulled by the state reporter); thereafter said contracts shall be made for the period of five years each.

8. Said contractor shall agree that he will promptly after the publication of each volume of said reports, and constantly thereafter, keep the same on hand for open and public sale, and will deliver the same, complete, bound and lettered, to any and to all persons desiring to purchase, at a price for each which shall be fixed by said contract.

9. Said contract shall contain such other provisions as in the judgment of the state reporter may be necessary to safeguard the interests of the state and of the public, and shall be subject to the approval of the chief judge of the court of appeals. The form of the proposed contract complete as to all its terms, except the prices to be paid the contractor, shall be prepared by the state reporter and be placed on file in the office of the law reporting bureau on or before the day of the first publication of notice under subdivision three of this section.

10. To every proposal there shall be annexed a bond executed by the proposed contractor, with sureties conditioned for the faithful performance of said contract, which bond shall be approved as to form, manner of execution, amount and sufficiency of sureties, by the chief judge of the court of appeals.

11. The right to reject any and every proposal if deemed unfavorable or disadvantageous is reserved to the state reporter, and the state reporter may readvertise until bids advantageous to the state and to the public have been secured.

12. If the state reporter determines that a contract has not been faithfully kept and performed by the contractor, or whenever in the judgment of the state reporter the public interest may so require, of which the state reporter shall be exclusive judge and his decision shall be final, the state reporter may, by an instrument in writing signed by him and approved by the chief judge of the court of appeals and filed in the office of the secretary of state, modify said contract in the interest of justice, or annul said contract from a time specified in said instrument and thereupon immediately enter into a new contract likewise to be approved by the chief judge of the court of appeals.

13. Neither the state reporter nor any of his deputies nor any of the employees of the law reporting bureau shall have any pecuniary interest in said reports or said contracts.

14. Nothing provided in this article shall affect the obligation of any contracts for the printing and publication of the aforementioned reports, or any of them, in force on July first, nineteen hundred thirty-eight; but the state reporter shall succeed to all the powers, rights and interests with respect to said contracts, possessed by the previous official reporters or board of reporters by whom said contracts were let.
(Added L.1938, c. 494, § 1. Amended L.1951, c. 821; L.1958, c. 782; L.1971, c. 25; L.1985, c. 218, § 1; L.1988, c. 137, § 1; L.2017, c. 116, § 1, eff. July 25, 2017.)

§ 435. Qualifications of state reporter and deputies

No one shall be appointed to the office of state reporter or of deputy state reporter who is not an attorney and counselor of this state; provided, however, that the limitation contained herein with respect to appointment to the office of deputy state reporter shall not apply to any deputy supreme court reporter or assistant supreme court reporter transferred from the office of the supreme court reporter to the law reporting bureau in accordance with the direction contained in section six of chapter four hundred ninety-four of the laws of nineteen hundred thirty-eight.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1; amended L 1946, ch 403.)

§ 436. Compensation of state reporter and deputy state reporter; reporters; office expense; fees

The state reporter shall receive an annual salary of nine thousand dollars, and the first deputy reporter an annual salary of seven thousand five hundred dollars. In addition thereto, such allowances shall be made for any other deputies, for clerk hire and for office expenses as the legislature shall from time to time direct.

Neither the state reporter nor any of his deputies nor any of the employees of the law reporting bureau shall receive to his own use any moneys or fees derived from the sale of any reports or of any copies of opinions, but all such moneys and fees shall be paid into the treasury of the state.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1.)

§ 437. Duty of state reporter on expiration of term

The state reporter must, on the appointment of his successor, deliver to him all papers in his hands, pertaining to a cause which he has not reported, or which are not necessary to be retained by him to complete the publication of a volume which is then partly printed. After the expiration of his term of office he shall not deliver a paper specified in this section, or a copy thereof, to any person other than his successor in office, or the publisher of a partly printed volume; except that a copy of such a paper may be furnished by him, during a vacancy in the office, to a judge of the court, or to the attorney for a party to the cause to which it relates.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1.)

§ 438. Copyright of notes prepared by law reporting bureau

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 office to grant to any person, firm or corporation, under such terms and conditions as he 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.
(Added L 1938, ch 494, § 1; amended L 1965, ch 462.)

Civil Practice Law and Rules article 55—Appeals

CPLR 5529 (e). Form of briefs and appendices; citations of decisions

New York decisions shall be cited from the official reports, if any. All other decisions shall be cited from the official reports, if any, and also from the National Reporter System if they are there reported. Decisions not reported officially or in the National Reporter System shall be cited from the most available source. (Emphasis added.)

Regulations

Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations
of the State of New York

Title 22. Judiciary

Subtitle B. Courts

Chapter I. Court of Appeals

Part 500. Rules of Practice

§ 500.1 (g) Citation form

Where New York authorities are cited in any submissions, New York Official Law Report citations shall be included, if available. (Emphasis added.)

Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations
of the State of New York

Title 22. Judiciary

Subtitle B. Courts

Chapter I. Court of Appeals

Part 510. Rules of the Court of Appeals in Capital Cases

§ 510.1 (a) Papers

All records, briefs, appendices, motion papers and other required submissions, whether printed, typewritten, or reproduced in other form (no carbon copies), shall conform to CPLR 5529 , shall be bound and securely fastened on the left edge, and shall have a fluorescent green sticker on the spine. Pages shall be consecutively numbered and each document filed shall contain an index or table of contents. Records and appendices shall be divided into volumes not to exceed two inches in thickness. Where New York authorities are cited in any paper, New York Official Law Report citations must be included. (Emphasis added.)

Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations
of the State of New York

Title 22. Judiciary

Subtitle C. Ancillary Agencies

Chapter VIII. State Reporter

Part 7300. Rules Concerning Publication of Opinions in the Miscellaneous Reports

§ 7300.1 Approval

No opinion shall be made available for publication in any official or unofficial reports, except the New York Law Journal, without the approval of the State Reporter or the Committee on Opinions.

§ 7300.2 Copies of Opinion

Before an opinion is made available for publication other than in the New York Law Journal, one copy thereof shall be sent to the State Reporter at 17 Lodge Street, Albany, NY 12207, or reporter@courts.state.ny.us [now reporter@nycourts.gov].

§ 7300.3 Notification

If the State Reporter determines that the opinion is acceptable for publication, he will so notify the judge who wrote the opinion and, within 48 hours after such determination, mail a copy thereof to the West Publishing Company.

§ 7300.4 Appeal

If the State Reporter determines that the opinion is not acceptable for publication, he will so notify the judge who wrote the opinion.

(a) If the judge agrees with the State Reporter's determination, the opinion will, without more, be withheld from publication.

(b) If the judge disagrees with the State Reporter's determination, the opinion will be submitted, upon the judge's written request, to a member of the Committee on Opinions. If the member of the committee determines that the opinion should not be published, that determination shall be final and the opinion will be withheld from publication.

§ 7300.5 Conditional Approval

In some cases, an opinion may be approved for publication on condition: for example, that excessively long quotations from opinions, texts or other writings be eliminated or summarized; or that an exceedingly long statement of the facts be eliminated or condensed.

§ 7300.6 Policies

Opinions to be published should be written as concisely as possible, without repetition or lengthy dissertations on well-known legal principles; opinions dealing with matters which are essentially of interest only to the attorneys and parties involved should not be presented for publication; and opinions covering legal matters which are of relatively incidental interest or which involve primarily factual or discretionary matters or dicta should not be submitted for publication.

§ 7300.7 Committee on Opinions

The Committee on Opinions consists of one justice from each of the departments of the Appellate Division.

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