Our collection of legal briefs:
San Diego Law Library serves as a legal briefs depository. We provide access to briefs filed in all six districts of the California Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. Our collection is quite extensive with some briefs dating as far back as 1895; however, there are some gaps in our holdings.
Because of the various filing systems and formats, accessing this collection can be challenging. This guide attempts to help the library user in locating briefs within the fiche collection at the Main Downtown library and through several online briefs databases that can be accessed from all of our branches.
In addition, a list of of resources is provided to help those who are writing a legal brief.
What is a brief?
A brief is a document used to present an argument or contention to the court. The brief gives the facts of the case and the party's legal arguments. The arguments are supported by legal authority and precedent, such as statutes, regulations, and previous court decisions.
How are briefs used in legal research?
If the case or a legal point presented in the brief is similar to the researcher's own, it can serve as a model for structuring an argument so that the researcher does not have to duplicate the research, thus saving valuable time if the law is still good.
How current are the briefs?
The California Public Law Library Briefs Service may have briefs filed in the current term year, but we cannot guarantee that every brief will be available. Turnaround time for a brief to appear in the databases is highly dependent upon how quickly the court ships the brief to West Court Records Services in Philadelphia. After the brief is processed there is a lead time of approximately 10 days before it appears in the databases. Briefs on microfiche for the previous year's term are received once per year (usually in April). For example, the 2010/2011 term briefs were received by the library in April 2012.
NOTE: We are no longer receiving briefs on microfiche. 2015/2016 is the final term received on microfiche for the California Supreme Court and all California appellate court districts. Briefs for terms after 2015/2016 will continue to be added to the California Public Law Library Briefs Service database by Westlaw (Thomson Reuters).
Information needed to locate briefs
The reference librarians can assist you in locating briefs for any case for which you have the case names (the names of the parties), the docket number, or the reported case citation. Unfortunately, our online briefs databases are NOT searchable by keyword or topic. If you wish to search by keyword or topic, you will need to perform a search in Westlaw, Lexis Advance, Fastcase (which can be accessed remotely outside the library) or a print digest to locate relevant cases. Once you locate a relevant case we can assist you in locating briefs for that case in our databases or microfiche collection.
Reviewing briefs in the library
Patrons who are present in the library may review, without charge, any briefs available on microfiche, in our Westlaw database, or in our California Public Law Library Briefs Service database. Briefs located in the Archival Collection database or Westlaw California Briefs database require a mediated search by a reference librarian, and can be downloaded to your own USB drive at no charge. Briefs on microfiche can be printed out at a cost of .20 cents per page. To have printed briefs retrieved from our historical collection on the 5th floor please see reference staff.
The San Diego Law Library is San Diego's access point to legal information, resources, and referrals to help you. Click here for hours and partner locations or contact us at refdesk@sdlawlibrary.org or 619-531-3900.
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