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I know you cannot cite unpublished appellate cases. It says they cannot be cited in WL. But what about trial court rulings, can they be cited?

dirtyjesus wrote:I know you cannot cite unpublished appellate cases. It says they cannot be cited in WL. But what about trial court rulings, can they be cited?

Only opinions ordered officially published can be cited as authority before California courts (see California Rules of Court, Rules 976 et seq.). All California Supreme Court decisions are published, while less than 20% of Courts of Appeal decisions are authorized for publication. Superior (trial) court decisions are considered non-precedential and, although binding on the parties to the case, are not published. However, selected opinions of the Appellate Departments of the Superior Court have been published since 1929. Unpublished cases (usually appellate-level decisions) can sometimes be found on LexisNexis or Westlaw or may be reproduced in topical looseleaf services.

http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/californiacases

Edited for emphasis

My Crim professor was bitching about how hard it is to find lower court cases from California just today.

I have no idea about the citing thing though, you should probably listen to that other guy.

SemperLegal wrote:

dirtyjesus wrote:I know you cannot cite unpublished appellate cases. It says they cannot be cited in WL. But what about trial court rulings, can they be cited?

Only opinions ordered officially published can be cited as authority before California courts (see California Rules of Court, Rules 976 et seq.). All California Supreme Court decisions are published, while less than 20% of Courts of Appeal decisions are authorized for publication. Superior (trial) court decisions are considered non-precedential and, although binding on the parties to the case, are not published. However, selected opinions of the Appellate Departments of the Superior Court have been published since 1929. Unpublished cases (usually appellate-level decisions) can sometimes be found on LexisNexis or Westlaw or may be reproduced in topical looseleaf services.

http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/californiacases

Edited for emphasis

Thanks, very helpful info and link.