What do we call a published court's opinion in a single case?

The term for a published court's opinion in a single case is "slip opinion." This designation refers to the preliminary version of an opinion released by a court shortly after a decision has been made. Slip opinions are typically distributed for immediate public access but may not yet contain all the formal enhancements and editorial changes that will appear in the final published version of the opinion in a bound volume of court reports.

Understanding this terminology is crucial within legal analysis because it highlights the difference between various types of published opinions. For instance, while "case opinion," "court brief," and "judicial opinion" may all refer to legal documents pertaining to court decisions and proceedings, they do not specifically capture the nature of a slip opinion. Slip opinions serve as the most immediate source of legal reasoning and rulings from the court, which can be critical for legal practitioners and scholars seeking to analyze current law.