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Legal Research

This guide will provide basic legal information that can be found in the NMSU Library and elsewhere on the internet.

Other New Mexico Case Law Resources

Interpreting Case Law

New Mexico Supreme Court Cases

The Pacific Reporter and Digest

Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine the case citation format.  The Pacific Reporter comprises all the decisions of the Supreme Courts of California, Kansas, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, District Courts of Appeal and Appellate Department of the Superior Court of California and Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma.

Digests are organized alphabetically by topic.  Each Topic begins with a scope note (Subjects Included and Subjects Excluded and Covered by Other Topics), then an outline of the Topic (Analysis). Abstracts of points of law are then arranged in order by Key Number.  Each digest has a Descriptive Word Index and a Table of Cases. Most also have Defendant-Plaintiff Tables (earlier regional and decennial digests do not).  This digest directly supplements the Pacific digest, 1850-1931.