How will the Maryland Decisions headnote system be structured?
The design and structure of the West Digest headnote system is of course copyrighted to West. The familiar West Digest system certainly is the research standard, but it has some disadvantages. It contains a plethora of legal topics, so that headnotes for a given opinion or area of law might be scattered across two or three topics, often requiring a researcher to pick and choose between such topics or review them all (for example: search and seizure, arrest, criminal law, drugs and narcotics OR divorce, marriage, husband and wife). Some legal topics are so fractured in the Digest System that it is difficult to find any single headnote of value–“Appeal & Error” and “Courts” are two examples. Also, the West Digest system generally is not “result oriented.” One often is required to read pages of headnotes on a single relevant point to find an instance where, for example, a motion to suppress was granted, a custody modification denied, or a challenge to a separation agreement upheld. Also,
