Introduction to Legal Research

Federal court of appeals

Once a case is decided in federal district court, either party can appeal to the federal court of appeals if that party is unhappy with the outcome in the district court.

As the name implies, the federal circuit courts of appeals are organized into circuits. Each circuit is comprised of one or more states (along with the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and even the District of the Canal Zone).

To see which circuit you live in, check the list below:

1st Circuit Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Puerto Rico Rhode Island	2d Circuit Connecticut New York Vermont	3d Circuit Delaware New Jersey Pennsylvania Virgin Islands	4th Circuit Maryland North Carolina South Carolina Virginia West Virginia
5th Circuit District of the Canal Zone Louisiana Mississippi Texas	6th Circuit Kentucky Ohio Michigan Tennessee	7th Circuit Illinois Indiana Wisconsin	8th Circuit Arkansas Iowa Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota South Dakota
9th Circuit Arizona California Guam Idaho Nevada Northern Mariana Islands Oregon Washington	10th Circuit Colorado Kansas New Mexico Oklahoma Utah Wyoming	11th Circuit Alabama Florida Georgia	D.C. Circuit District of Columbia

This geography lesson is extremely important to anyone doing legal research. Why? Because when you are researching prior court decisions, you need to know whether a particular decision that you just found is binding precedent on your lawsuit or not. The issue of precedent will be discussed shortly.

U.S. Supreme Court

A party who is unhappy with the outcome in the court of appeals can ask the United States Supreme Court to review the case. But the Supreme Court only reviews a very small percentage of all cases that are submitted to it.

For more information on our federal court system, read our article: Anatomy of a Lawsuit.

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