A slip opinion may also be issued the day the decision is handed down, and is usually not typeset or fully formatted.
Moreover, a slip opinion is replaced within a few months by a paginated version of the case in the preliminary print, and—one year after the issuance of that print—by the final version of the case in a U. S. Reports bound volume.
In that situation, several concurring opinions may be written, none of which is actually the view of a majority of the members of the court.
A dissenting opinion does not create binding precedent nor does it become a part of case law.
Normally, appellate courts (or panels) are staffed with an odd number of judges to avoid a tie.
Opinions may also be issued in ways that limit the amount of authority that they have as precedents for future cases.
Depending upon local court rules, citation of the opinion as case law may not be accepted.
An advisory opinion or certified question are those issued by a court or administrative body or panel that do not dispose of a particular case.
Some circumstances where they are issued include: A 2011 peer-reviewed research paper suggested that judicial rulings can be swayed by extraneous variables that should have no bearing on legal decisions, such as the timing of a parole hearing in relation to the judges' meal breaks.