Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 1975
“… the judicial opinion is a human document and a fascinating record, there, for anybody's use. From the standpoint of behavioral study these are data in which so many factors are held equal as to outrun the results of an ordinary ten-or even hundred-thousand-dollar grant. All there. All waiting. Already gathered. Merely neglected,” (K. Llewellyn, 1960:514).
Reported opinions are a rich source of dispute data. Ideally they answer a wide variety of questions: who are the parties, what do they want, where have they gone for redress, how was the dispute processed, when was it resolved? Many of these questions can be answered with case data, but caution is required. Disputes leaves trails and traces in many places. Judicial opinions capture part of the story (namely, the official response to specified claims on a particular occasion), but they are spotty dissiers.
Work on this note was supported in part by N.S.F. Grant GS-384-13, An Historical and Comparative Study of State Supreme Courts, in collaboration with L. Friedman, R. Kagan, S. Wheeler. Special thanks to the project coders and research assistants especially D. Polise, who brought cheer and craft to the least glamorous but most important job of all, data cleaning.