Practice Kit 12: D.C. Court of Appeals Case Law Index

The purpose of this practice kit is to equip attorneys with a basic foundation of case law regarding several regularly recurring legal issues and doctrines at the appellate level in abuse and neglect, guardianship, custody, and adoption matters. Opinions are organized alphabetically by topic; within each subject area, opinions are listed chronologically. All of the cases are from the D.C. Court of Appeals and the D.C. Superior Court.

This practice kit is meant to be used as a starting point for legal research. It does not attempt to be a complete compilation of all applicable opinions on a particular issue, but instead offers a sample of the potentially relevant precedent on topics attorneys frequently encounter on appeal. Attorneys are also encouraged to exercise due diligence in using this practice kit – newly published cases may provide different perspectives on, distinguish, or overrule the precedent listed herein. In other words, as with all legal resources, this kit does not serve as a substitute for an attorney’s own research.

Each year or two, this kit will include newly-decided key cases from the D.C. Court of Appeals (and, in limited instances, the D.C. Superior Court) related to the topics that are covered. Additional subject areas may also be added to the index in the future.