Why bother printing trial court and agency opinions? Aren they lacking in precedent and value as citeable authority?
Any citation to West’s F.Supp. is a citation to a trial court decision. Yet the F. Supp. has been in use for decades and is freely cited by attorneys. The F. Supp. is now in its Second series, meaning that more than 900 of the original volumes have been published. The Second series is already well on its way to that volume figure (the volume series is rapidly moving and at this rate very soon there will be a F.Supp.3d). The West N.Y.S. and N.Y.S.2d volume series frequently contains trial court opinions, yet this volume series also has been in use for years and is commonly cited. There are other current examples (e.g. Pennsylvania’s D&C [District and Circuit] opinions volume series). The value of any decision as legal authority in a given matter also has much to do with whether it deals with similar facts and topics to the situation at hand. Trial court decisions often provide that intersection between facts and legal issues.
