The headnote is a summary of a statute.

• A. False
• B. True
• C. Sometimes
• D. Not sure

Answer: (A)

Headnotes are editorial summaries of how a court decides the issues in a case, not summaries of the statute itself. They’re created by publishers to help readers quickly navigate the court’s opinion and find discussions of legal topics, holdings, and reasoning. The actual statute is the text enacted by the legislature, and the binding source for understanding its terms is the statute itself (and the court’s oral or written interpretation in the opinion). So saying a headnote summarizes a statute isn’t accurate—the headnote reflects the court’s decision in that particular case, not the statutory language.