Casenote Question Forum

[kalvano]

This may be is a stupid question, but when you write your casenote, does the judge that decided the case ever find out?

[leobowski]

Not to my knowledge.

[random5483]

You mean when you write your law review (or other journal) case note?

Most case notes deal with non-supreme court cases. Most lower courts focus on practical law and not academic law. Thus, judges and practicing attorneys rarely turn to law review articles for help. While I intered at one of the federal district courts my 1L summer, I wrote several recommended orders for my judge. Not once did I ever reference a law review article. As such, academics are more likely to look at such an article.

On occasion judges cite to law reviews, but it is more of an exception than the norm. If you pick an arcane issue the judge who wrote the opinion might see your law review because a keycite of the case would show your law review note. If you pick a more popular issue, your note will be buried among 1000s of references and the judge will probably never see it.

Anyway, I don't know why it would matter if a specific judge sees your note or not.

[zomginternets]

If your case note gets published, it'll appear on a Westlaw search to whoever looks up that topic. The judge doesn't get an urgent email titled "THIS HATER HATED ON YOUR OPINION!!!", if that's what you're worried about. And as pointed out above, I don't understand why it would matter anyway.

[kalvano]

I was just curious about, if you get published, does the judge who wrote the opinion get notified somehow. Not as if they would be angry or upset about it, just "hey, someone wrote something about your opinion, yay for you."

[Anonymous Loser]

If your case note gets published, it'll appear on a Westlaw search to whoever looks up that topic. The judge doesn't get an urgent email titled "THIS HATER HATED ON YOUR OPINION!!!", if that's what you're worried about. And as pointed out above, I don't understand why it would matter anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the clerk who authored the opinion had set up an alert on Westlaw. Hell, I get an email every time my comment is cited. It's sort of disingenuous to assume that all the posters on here who are striving for clerkships will suddenly lose interest in seeking recognition and approval once they've graduated.

[CanadianWolf]

Some law reviews send copies to judges in the region.

[random5483]

If your case note gets published, it'll appear on a Westlaw search to whoever looks up that topic. The judge doesn't get an urgent email titled "THIS HATER HATED ON YOUR OPINION!!!", if that's what you're worried about. And as pointed out above, I don't understand why it would matter anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the clerk who authored the opinion had set up an alert on Westlaw. Hell, I get an email every time my comment is cited. It's sort of disingenuous to assume that all the posters on here who are striving for clerkships will suddenly lose interest in seeking recognition and approval once they've graduated.

Most students who get published will want to track their notes/comments. Law clerks and judges are much less likely to track their published opinions for law review articles. Law clerks, especially those in appellate courts, draft numerous opinions each year. Law students who get published draft one article during their 2L year. It is much easier to track one article than many. Moreover, a law review article is credited to the law student, while the opinion is credited to the judge.

Simply put, the fact that law students likely keycite their law review notes does not mean that judges (or even law clerks) track law review notes related to their opinion.