Are headnotes considered part of a case?

Headnotes are not considered part of a case. They are brief summaries or highlights of the legal principles addressed in a judicial opinion, usually provided by editorial staff of legal publishers. While they serve as helpful tools for locating and understanding key legal concepts quickly, they are not officially part of the judicial decision itself. The case's authoritative text is the actual opinion delivered by the court, which includes the facts, legal reasoning, and the court's judgment. Thus, headnotes do not have legal weight and are not binding in the way that the case itself is. This distinction is important in legal research and writing, as practitioners need to rely on the actual decisions and not just the summaries provided by headnotes.