West American Digest System
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Introduction
West American Digest System is a system of identifying legal cases and organizing them by topic and key number. The system was developed by West Publishing (http://west.thomson.com), the makers of Westlaw. West is one of the premier legal publishers. This extensive Taxonomy makes the process of doing case law legal research less time consuming as it directs the researcher to cases that are similar to the legal issue under consideration. The system is similar to the Canadian Abridgement. The free Westlaw guidesincludes (http://west.thomson.com/westlaw/guides/lawschool.asp) one on using the Digest System to find cases. Those interested in the more technical aspects of taxonomies will find interesting A Brief Practical Introduction to Taxonomies (http://www.thomson.com/cms/assets/pdfs/legal/westkm_Taxonomies.pdf), by Dan Dabney, Senior Director for Research and Development at Thompson-West.
History
The problem of finding cases on a particular topic was a large problem for the rapidly growing American legal system of the 19th century. John B. West, the founder of West Publishing, described this problem in his still highly readable article, A multiplicity of reports (http://www.hyperlaw.com/jbwest.htm). To solve the problem, he developed a system with two major parts. First, his company published cases in many American jurisdictions (West reporters now cover most state and federal courts). Second, he put together a classification system in which he divided the law into major categories which he called topics (such as contracts). He then created hundreds of subcategories. To save space in printing these were given a number called a key number. He then applied this "topic and key number" system to the cases he published.
How the Digest System Works
To this day, each case published in a West reporter is evaluated by an editor and summarized. The editor places the summaries of the points of law covered in the case at the beginning of the case. These summaries are usually two or three sentences long, and are called HEADNOTES. Each headnote is then assigned a topic and key number. The headnotes are arranged according to their topic and key number in multi-volume sets of books called Digests. The digests then serves as a subject index to the case law published in West reporters. Matching the mind of the indexer can be challenging, particularly if you are not familiar with the law (reading an overview of your topic in a secondary source such as a journal article may help). Sometimes problems arise because over time legal terminology has changed. Still, the West Digest System stands as the primary classification system of the legal field.
Using the Digest
In print, a Digest works like an encyclopedia. Look in the index volumes at the back of the set to get a reference to the main volumes. When you consult the index, you will find under your subject a 1) Topic and 2) keynumber. 1) Find the TOPIC on the spine of the volume(s) from the main set (it will either be right on the spine or will fall between the topics that are listed on the spine). 2) Open the volume and find the topic (if there are multiple topics covered by that volume, 3) Once you are at the topic, find the keynumber and read the case summaries under that key number. Note the citation to any cases that are relevant to your issue. 4) READ THE CASE! Do not depend upon only the summary.
You can also search the digest electronically using Westlaw, with the Keysearch feature (browse by subject - no search terms required), by a keynumber search (tough to do), or by finding a relevant case using keyword searching and then using the keynumber hyperlinks in the document to find related cases.