BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT
WASHINGTON STATE'S APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

When the appellate court issues an opinion, it first takes the form of a slip opinion. Slip opinions are posted on the courts.wa.gov website. For users who are looking for a recently filed opinion, this is where you would find it.

For some opinions—those that are to be officially "published"—the slip opinions are then superseded by the edited opinions that are found in the advance sheets and bound volumes of the official Washington Reports and Washington Appellate Reports. Once superseded, the slip opinions that are on the courts.wa.gov website are marked accordingly. For the slip opinions that have been superseded, users should instead refer to the official, printed opinions in the printed, official Washington reporters. An online version of the edited opinions are accessible for free on the Washington State Judicial Opinions Website. Once superseded, slip opinions should not be cited.

"Published" opinions are those opinions that are fully precedential under GR 14.1 and that are printed in the official Washington Reports and Washington Appellate Reports (the official reporters). All of the opinions from the Washington Supreme Court are published as precedential. In the Court of Appeals, some opinions are published in this manner, but others are unpublished.

Published opinions go through an editing process after they are filed as slip opinions. One round of edits occurs before the opinions are published in the advance sheets of Washington's official reporters. A second round occurs before the opinions are finally published in the bound volumes for those official reporters. Editing includes substantive changes to opinions, which are made through court orders amending the slip opinions, and nonsubstantive changes for purposes of consistency in style, grammar, and formatting.

Each published opinion of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals is posted on the Washington State Judicial Opinions Website at the time when the opinion is published in the advance sheets of the official reporter. The opinions on that website are then updated when the opinion is ultimately published in the bound volume of the official reporter. The published opinions on the Washington State Judicial Opinions Website are intended to mirror the official opinion text that is found in the Washington Reports printed publications. For more information, see the main page of the Washington State Judicial Opinions Website, https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.

The Court of Appeals issues both published and unpublished opinions. The Court of Appeals issues an unpublished opinion when the judges determine that the case lacks sufficient precedential value for full publication, usually because the case addresses already settled points of law. Under GR 14.1 and RCW 2.06.040, these unpublished opinions cannot be cited as precedential authority. Unpublished opinions are filed as a matter of public record instead of being published in Washington's official reporters.

All opinions issued by the Supreme Court are published opinions.