R.a.s.

Lammo said:

No worries, after 24 years it still sometimes looks like Greek to me. Washington has two official reports for court decisions, the Washington Reports (Wn., Wn.2d) for the Supreme Court and the Washington Appellate Reports (Wn.App.) for the Court of Appeals. After the original series hit 200 volumes, they started the 2nd series for the Washington Reports. The Appellate Reports will probably do that eventually as well - - it's currently somewhere in the 150s. In addition to the official publications, Washington decisions can also be found in West Publishing's Pacific Reporter which includes decisions from 15 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). The practice here has long been to include both the official citation and the West citation.

The example above, State v. Duncan, 146 Wn.2d 166, 173-75, 43 P.3d 513 (2002), translates as follows:
Volume 146, Washington Reports, 2nd Series, Page 166, relevant language found at pages 173 through 175, also found in Volume 43, West's Pacific Reporter, 3rd Series, Page 513 (decided in 2002).

It can be even more confusing when you look at US Supreme Court citations as there are three sources: the official reporter (U.S.), the West Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.) and the Lawyer's Edition (L.Ed., L.Ed.2d) by the Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Company. Almost all citations to US Supreme Court cases will include all three citiations. For example, included in the Duncan opinion is a citation to the Terry case, which is: Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).

Hope this helps without digging too deep into the weeds. The second paragraph actually has the short answer to your question without the history lesson. If it's too much, that'll teach you to ask a lawyer a question.

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1245A Defender said:

now ive read duncan, and peters both, twice!
peters is straight forward, legality of the stop question, period!
duncan is all tied up with drugs, searches, confessions, motions to exclude,
its confusing, and filled with all kinds of distracting paraphernalia,
having little to do with the question,
of the legitimacy of demanding ID!

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END_THE_FED said:

Well, you go ahead and try citing a Wisconsin case in a Washington court and see how far that gets you.

Out of state court cases can shed some light on how another state's court MIGHT rule on a case, but should not be too heavily relied upon. When in court it would be much better to have a decision from a court of the same State.

If I have a choice between two cases to cite in a Washington court, one being a WA. Supreme Court case and the other being an out of state appellate court case, I will choose the WA State case. It doesn't really matter what one is an easier read.

Even if it is a Supreme Court Case from another State.
For example a district court of Washington State should render its decisions based on precedent set by the Supreme Court of Washington, it is under no obligation to consider Cases from the Supreme Court of Illinois.

Remember, each State is a sovereign with its own set of laws, the courts of one State are ruling based on that State's laws.

Generally speaking all States are bound to the decisions of SCOTUS, but not of courts from another State.

Lammo, can you back me up on this or am I way off base?


I am not a lawyer this is not legal advice.

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