District courts (the trial courts)

The district courts issue judgments and orders. With rare exceptions, these can be appealed to the Court of Appeals.

Where to find them:

Judgments and orders are distributed to the litigants and their attorneys. They are also kept in the court file located at the Court Administrator’s office in the courthouse where the dispute was tried.

Appellate courts

The appellate courts issue opinions and orders. An opinion is a written decision stating the final judgment in the case and the reasoning behind the decision. An order is an intermediary step before a final decision or a way to implement a final judgment afterward. Orders may be used to settle questions of fact or law, to require a party or a lower court to do something, or to otherwise direct the course of the proceedings.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals reconsiders decisions of the district courts when one party believes that an error has been made and files an appeal. It also reviews the validity of administrative rules and decisions of the administrative courts under the Administrative Procedure Act. The 16 judges form panels of three to hear cases.

Court of Appeals opinions may be published or unpublished.

Opinions are published only when the decision:

•   establishes a new rule of law;
•   overrules a previous court of appeals decision that had not been reviewed by the supreme court;
•   provides important procedural guidelines in interpreting statutes or administrative rules;
•   involves significant legal issues; or
•   aids significantly in the administration of justice. (Minn. Stat. §480A.08)

Unpublished opinions are not intended to be used as precedent and can be cited in arguments before the courts of the state only in limited circumstances.

Order opinions are issued when the questions raised in the case have been settled by a decision in a previous case, making a full opinion unnecessary.

Special term opinions are issued when the Court encounters a procedural issue that would be of general interest to the bar. The online subject index to special term opinions provides a brief summary of these advisory opinions on procedure. Word Version or PDF Version

Sources of Court of Appeals opinions:

Slip opinions are released every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. They are published weekly in the Appellate Courts Edition of Minnesota Lawyer and also collected in binders by the MSLL. Published opinions will next appear in the advance sheets of the North Western Reporter, which are later replaced by the permanent hardbound volumes. The originals are kept on file with the Clerk of the Appellate Courts. Since May 1996, published and unpublished opinions have also been available on the Internet http://www.lawlibrary.state.mn.us/archive/ and on Lexis and Westlaw.

Order opinions are distributed to the attorneys involved and also kept in the Office of the Clerk of Appellate Courts. They are also collected in binders by the MSLL. The district court file, in the appropriate county courthouse, would also contain copies of order opinions.

The Minnesota Supreme Court is the state’s highest court. The seven justices select which appeals they take from decisions of the Court of Appeals. In making these selections, they consider the following factors:

•   Does the case raise an important question that is being decided for the first time by a Minnesota court?
•   Has a statute been held to be unconstitutional?
•   Is the decision to be reviewed in direct conflict with an earlier decision that would normally have been followed?
•   Have the lower courts departed so far from the accepted and usual course of justice that the Supreme Court must exercise its supervisory powers? (Minn. Stat. §480A.10)

All opinions of the Supreme Court are published because they provide precedents that all lower courts in Minnesota must follow in deciding similar cases. Orders that are considered to be of general interest may be published as well. A special type of order is the summary disposition, sometimes used to affirm a Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals decision without issuing an opinion.

Sources of Supreme Court Opinions:

Slip opinions are released every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. They are published in the Appellate Courts Edition of Minnesota Lawyer and also collected in binders by the MSLL. Later, they appear in the advance sheets of the North Western Reporter. Finally, they are published in the permanent hardbound volumes of North Western Reporter. Since May 1996, they have also been archived on the Internet http://www.lawlibrary.state.mn.us/archive/ and on Lexis and Westlaw.

Orders of the Supreme Court also appear in Minnesota Lawyer and the Northwestern Reporter.

Where to find these resources

The Library

• Slip opinions for the current month are located in a file tray next to the book return area of the information desk.
• Slip opinions are retained for two years in the Minnesota Collection. Opinions of the Supreme Court can be found under KFM5445, and the Court of Appeals under KFM5448.
• Pre-1996 unpublished opinions of the Court of Appeals are also retained in the Minnesota Collection at KFM5448 .M52.
• The Appellate Courts Edition of Minnesota Lawyer is located in the Minnesota Collection.
• North Western Reporter is located with the other regional reporters at call number KF135.N7. Use door C.
• Minnesota Reporter, a subset of the North Western Reporter, containing only Minnesota cases, is located in the Minnesota Collection at call number KFM5445.A23.

The Internet
Since May of 1996, opinions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals have been archived online at: http://www.lawlibrary.state.mn.us/archive/. They can also be searched online at: http://search.state.mn.us/lawlibrary/

Public computers are located outside the reading lounge between the information desk and the wireless access area.

The Clerk’s Office
The Office of the Clerk of Appellate Courts is located in
Suite 305 – Minnesota Judicial Center
25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55155
651-296-2581

Files over ten years old are sent from the Clerk’s Office to the Minnesota History Center for permanent archival storage.