Legal Research: Pennsylvania

Case Digests

For many years the only comprehensive case finding tool available in Pennsylvania was the Vale Pennsylvania Digest published by West. Using the topic and key number indexing system this tool indexed all of the appellate and side reports published in the state. By the early 1980's many of the volumes had been reissued because their pocket parts had grown so large and other volumes were bursting at the seams. West then decided to publish a new digest to contain all of the information that was at the time included in the Vale pocket parts. The new digest is called West's Pennsylvania Digest 2d. It covers all Pennsylvania appellate decisions from 1938 to date and side reports from 1938 to approximately 1976. As mentioned above it still covers District and County Reports and the Fiduciary Reporter. The set continues to use the topic and key number system and contains a descriptive word index to help lead the researcher to the appropriate topic. Other features include a words and phrases volume to locate judicially defined words, an alphabetical table of cases, and a defendant/plaintiff table. The set is updated by annual pocket parts and a mid-year supplement is issued over the summer.

In an attempt to fill the gap when West stopped indexing the side reports in its digest in 1976, Packard Press decided to start a new indexing service specifically for the side reports in 1980. This was a short lived enterprise and the result was a one volume index covering some of those county cases published in 1979 and most of those decided in 1980. After Packard Press gave up on this separate venture they incorporated it into their weekly legal newspaper the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. Every issue contains a section that summarizes recent trial and appellate decisions. In January and July one issue of the newspaper contains a six month index to the summarized decisions. It is an extremely time consuming process to find Court of Common Pleas decisions this way because the index uses fairly general indexing terms and one must go to the individual issues of the Pennsylvania Law Weekly which summarized the case to get the reporter citation.

It might seem like a lot of work to search for Common Pleas decisions and in cases where an on-point appellate decision exists most attorneys will not bother. However, there are several areas of the law, landlord tenant being one, where the amount in controversy is minimal and therefore an appeal is not economical. In these areas trial decisions play an important role. In Pennsylvania, decisions from one county are not binding on the trial courts of another, but can be persuasive.