Traditionally, a law report3 is a written account of a proceeding and a judicial decision, and the reporter is the person responsible for making and publishing that account. In American English, however, reporter has been blurred into report – primarily

Traditionally, a law report³ is a written account of a proceeding and a judicial decision, and the reporter is the person responsible for making and publishing that account. In American English, however, reporter has been blurred into report – primarily because of West Publishing Company's "National Reporter" system (established in 1879), each Reporter being a set of books containing judicial opinions from a geographic area within the country. Formerly, fastidious writers tried to distinguish the senses by capitalizing one but not the other. . . .