Research Guides: North Carolina Legal Research: NC Case Law

North Carolina Cases on Lexis
North Carolina State Cases on Westlaw
North Carolina Supreme Court Opinions
1998 - current. Note that while these opinions are provided by the North Carolina Court System, they are not the official version of the opinion. You must verify their accuracy against the official print version in the North Carolina Reports or the North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports.
North Carolina Court of Appeals Opinions
1998 - current. Note that while these opinions are provided by the North Carolina Court System, they are not the official version of the opinion. You must verify their accuracy against the official print version in the North Carolina Reports or the North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports.

North Carolina Reports
Call Number: North Carolina Collection KFN7445 .N67
Official reporter of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports
Call Number: North Carolina Collection KFN7448 .N67
Official reporter of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Court Reports
Digitized versions of North Carolina Reports (1778 - ) and North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports (1968 - ) from the North Carolina State Archives.

West’s South Eastern Reporter
Call Number: North Carolina Collection KF135 .S61
Unofficial reporter covering the appellate courts of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. It’s divided into three different series depending on the date the opinions were issued, so be sure you have the right series for the time period in which you’re interested.

• 1st Series (1887 – 1939)
• 2d Series (1939 - 1988)
• 3d Series (1988 - current)

Digests

Digests are topically organized indices of case law. You use them when you are looking for cases in your jurisdiction on a particular point of law. They are published by West so use the West Key Number System.

West’s North Carolina Digest 2d
Call Number: North Carolina Collection KFN7457 .W4
Indexes the opinions of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. While it is a 2d series, it replaced the first series instead of supplementing it, so it covers all NC case law from 1778 to present.
West’s South Eastern Digest 2d
Call Number: North Carolina Collection KF135 .S61 W47 1981
Indexes the cases in the South Eastern Reporter. As with the South Eastern Reporter, the South Eastern Digest is broken down into series that cover different date ranges. Please note that the dates of the series of the digests do not correspond to the dates on the series of the reporters.