This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 Excerpt: ... sheets assume the proportions of a sufficient volume, they are reprinted and issued as permanent bound volumes. By this means the decisions are rendered accessible to the bench and bar sometimes as much as a year and a half or two years sooner than in the official state reports. Another merit of the system, though there is room for difference of opinion as to whether it really is a merit, is that the National Reporter system reports all cases in which written opinions are filed, while in the official reports, under statutory provisions to that effect in a number of states, only such cases are reported and published in the official reports as the several courts may direct. (Under such a statute, enacted in 1915 in Missouri, only about onethird of the cases decided are reported in the official reports.) Selected Case Reports. There are a number of series of reports of selected cases, based upon the theory of publishing only those cases which are of general value throughout the country. The plan, which is essentially the same in the several series, is: (1) to select cases of general interest only, with the object of giving a fair representation of the American Case Law as a whole; (2) to report each case in full in the usual way, with headnotes, except that questions of local practice are omitted, if possible; (3) to annotate the cases so reported or some of them. The several series of selected case reports are: American Decisions, in 100 vols., being cases decided by the various state courts from 1760 to 1869; about 15,800 cases in all. American Reports, in 60 vols., being cases decided by the various state courts between 1870-1887; about 9,300 cases in all. American State Reports, in 140 vols., covering some 20,500 cases decided by the state courts from 188...