ADVANCE SHEETS

advance sheets.A softcover pamphlet containing recently reported opinions by a court or set

of courts. • Advance sheets are published during the interim between an opinion’s announcement

and  its  inclusion  in  a  bound  volume  of  law  reports.  Cf.  slip  opinion  (1)  under  OPINION;

REPORT(3). [Cases: Courts    103; Reports    1. C.J.S. Courts §§ 170, 173–174, 176; Reports §§

2–3.]

“As  a  bound  volume  of  any  series  of  reports  is  not  published  until  sufficient  matter  has

accumulated to fill it, it necessarily results in the holding of the first decisions rendered after the

preceding  volume  has  been  issued,  until  there are  enough  more  to  justify  the  publication  of  the

next  volume.  Even  after  enough  material  has  been  accumulated  to  fill  a  volume,  there  is

necessarily  considerable time consumed in its printing, indexing, and binding before the book is

ready for delivery. Hence, it is customary, as soon as a part of the volume has come from the press,

to issue such part in pamphlet form; and these paper-bound copies are known as ‘advance sheets.’

They are portions of the next volume issued in advance of final publication, being paged as they

will  appear  in  the  bound  volume.  Advance  sheets  enable  the  enterprising  lawyer  to  obtain  the

decisions right down almost to the date of his search for the law.” Frank Hall Childs, Where and

How to Find the Law 21 (1922). [Blacks Law 8th]