American Law Reports (A.L.R.)

The ALR Series is an annotated reporter.

    • it is a reporter because it reports (reprints) cases from courts.
    • it is annotated because it discusses, or comments, on those cases.

ALR reprints important or interesting cases, then comments on those cases providing additional research tools and references. There are several series of A.L.R.:

    • A.L.R.
    • A.L.R.2d
    • A.L.R.3d
    • A.L.R.4th
    • A.L.R.5th
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    • A.L.R. Fed.
 

A.L.R. (first series), A.L.R.2d, and A.L.R.3d annotate both state and federal cases. A.L.R.4th and A.L.R.5th annotate only state cases, while A.L.R.Fed. , obviously, publishes federal cases. ALR is published by the Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Company, and therefore uses the Total Client Service Library research system.

Although A.L.R. contains selected cases, which are primary authority, it is considered secondary authority because it is primarily valued for its annotations.