A court decision is a legal determination of parties’ rights and obligations reached by the courts based on facts and law. Decisions, also known as rulings or judgments, are one of the main sources of law in the United States, along with statutes and regulations enacted by Congress and state legislatures. A court’s judgments and decisions are binding on other courts, and can be used as precedent in future cases.
A decision is made up of a series of written opinions on the case, and can include a majority opinion, a concurring opinion or a dissenting opinion. The majority or principal opinion summarises the facts of the case, the relevant laws and the reasoning the Court has come to its conclusion. The dissenting opinion or opinions offer additional explanations or reasons for disagreeing with the decision. A decision can be a “full” or “brief” judgment, depending on whether it has a lot of opinions or not.
The terms “interlocutory judgment” or “final decision” are sometimes used to distinguish between different kinds of judicial decisions. An interlocutory decision may settle an intermediate matter while the case is still ongoing, whereas a final judgment concludes the entire litigation process and settles all issues of the case.
In the United States, a decision is usually published in a set of law reports, or “cases”. A single “writing” is created to contain all the different opinions on a case and may be identified by an identifier such as the docket number of the case, or a unique computer file name.