FEDERAL APPENDIX
A legal reference source containing federal courts
of appeals decisions that have not been selected by
the court for publication.
The first volume of the Federal Appendix was
published September 1, 2001. Coverage began
with decisions handed down after January 1,
2001. The Federal Appendix is an appendix to the
Federal Reporter, Third Series (F.3d). However,
unpublished opinions from the Fifth and
Eleventh Circuits are not included in the Federal
Appendix.
The Federal Appendix is part of Thomson
West’s National Reporter System. The cases con-
tain the West enhancements of case summaries,
headnotes, and topics and key numbers. A cita-
tion to a Federal Appendix opinion gives, first,
the volume, then the abbreviation of the publi-
cation, and finally the page number on which
the opinion begins. A sample citation looks like
this: 2 Fed.Appx. 386 (4th Cir. 2001). In 2002,
Federal Appendix citations began to appear in
the Federal Practice Digest Fourth Series, and
also in some state digests.
Generally, unpublished opinions have no
precedential value. And across jurisdictions there
are inconsistent court rules regarding citation of
unpublished opinions. In 2001 the American Bar
Association House of Delegates expressed its
approval of federal courts of appeals granting
access to unpublished opinions and allowing cita-
tion to unpublished opinions (ABA Resolution
01A115). And The Judicial Conference of the
United States’s Advisory Committee on Appellate
Rules has considered amendments to the Federal
Rules of Appellate Procedure dealing with cita-
tion of non-precedential unpublished decisions.
CROSS-REFERENCES
