Kara Sears
Case law research is a complex but essential task for legal professionals and students alike. There are several methods to find case law, including using case citations, which are structured by volume number, reporter abbreviation, and the first page of the case. Case law is published in official and unofficial case law reporters in chronological order, with Supreme Court opinions being the only federal opinions published in official case reporters. Databases such as Westlaw, Lexis+, and Bloomberg Law provide access to case law and allow users to search by jurisdiction, topic, or keywords. Citators are another tool used to find case law, providing information on the history of a case and its subsequent treatment by courts, helping researchers determine if a case is still considered good law. Additionally, law libraries offer print and online resources for case law research, and guides are available to help navigate the process.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Case law sources | Official and unofficial case law reporters, in chronological order |
| Supreme Court opinions | Binding on all U.S. courts; published in United States Reports ("U.S."), Supreme Court Reporter ("S. Ct."), and Lawyers' Edition ("L. Ed.") |
| Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal | 12 regional circuits and a federal circuit for specialized cases |
| Case citations | Volume number, reporter abbreviation, and first page of the case; can also include party names and the year it was decided |
| Finding cases by topic or keywords | Westlaw's West Key Number System, Lexis+ and LexisNexis, Bloomberg Law |
| Citators | Shepards (LexisNexis), Keycite (Westlaw), and Google Scholar |
| Law libraries | Physical and online access to cases, with assistance from law librarians |
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What You'll Learn
Using databases and digests
There are several databases and online resources that can be used to find case law. The Library of Congress has a number of resources, including HeinOnline, which includes case law in the U.S. Supreme Court Library database and the collection of Early American Case Law. The Library of Congress also has digitized volumes of the United States Reports from 1754 to 2012, which are available to the public as part of its digital collections. The U.S. Government Publishing Office's govinfo website provides access to select federal court decisions from 2004 to the present. Additionally, the Law Library of Congress has created freely-available legal research guides to help researchers locate online case law sources.
Another database that can be used is Westlaw, which allows for full-text searching of case law. Westlaw also includes West's Federal Practice Digest 4th, which includes a Table of Cases, listing cases in alphabetical order, indexed by both plaintiff and defendant names. Westlaw is available to the public in the Law Library Reading Room at the Library of Congress.
Lexis is another database that allows for full-text searching of case law. LexisNexis is a major U.S. legal publisher that uses its own system of Headnotes and Summaries, although it does not publish a digest system.
Bloomberg Law is another database that can be used to search case law and dockets, and it has its own citator system for updating cases.
Fastcase is a database that provides access to cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and constitutions.
Findlaw.com contains a searchable database of Supreme Court opinions since 1893 and an archive of opinion summaries from 2000 to the present, as well as some U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals decisions from 1995 to the present.
Google Scholar has added legal opinions to its offerings, including Supreme Court opinions since 1791 and U.S. appellate, district, and bankruptcy opinions since 1923.
Government websites, such as the U.S. Government Printing Office's FDSys's website, offer public access to select federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy court opinions from 2004 to the present in pdf format. Federal Court websites also offer public access to select opinions.
In addition to databases, digests can also be used to find case law. A digest is a compilation of case annotations, arranged alphabetically by subject. Case annotations are short descriptions of a single aspect of a case. Most digests are published by West/Thomson Reuters and use the West Topic and Key Number System. This system categorizes the law into approximately 400 topics, and each topic is further subdivided into Key Numbers (with approximately 100,000 distinct Key Numbers). The Key Number System is the same in every West publication, so if you have a topic and key number for the subject you are researching, you will be able to find state and federal cases that address the particular point of law using any West Digest.
To use a digest, locate the Topic(s) you are interested in the Descriptive Word Index, and within that Topic, find the key number (the number that was in bold in the Descriptive Word Index). At the beginning of each Topic, there will be a Scope Note and Topic Analysis, which are short and long outlines placed before all the case annotations begin. It is helpful to scan through these outlines to locate related information. Always check the pocket part or free-standing supplement to the main volume to discover if any new information has been added, and always read the full text of the cited cases before citing them in any document.
If you can find one case on your topic from any state or jurisdiction, you can use a digest to find similar cases in your jurisdiction. The best place to find a "good case" is in a secondary source, such as legal encyclopedias, law review articles, treatises, and ALR annotations. Once you have a citation for a case addressing your topic, you must find that case in a West reporter.
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Case citations
Different citation formats can be used, but they all provide the same information. Once you have this information, you can look up the case online or in a reporter. It is important to always check to make sure the case you have found is still good law and to be aware of what other courts held on the relevant points of law. This process is often referred to as "Shepardizing" a case. There are two main case law citators to verify the status of your case: Shepards on LexisNexis and Keycite on Westlaw.
KeyCite will let you see the history of the case, including earlier and subsequent rulings. It will also provide a link to "Citing References" to view other cases and secondary sources relevant to your topic. Similarly, Shepards provides both prior and subsequent histories of the case, as well as tabs for "Citing Decisions" and "Citing Law Reviews, Treatises, and other Secondary Sources".
In some jurisdictions, it is common to apply square brackets " [year]" to the publication year. This may be different from the year the case was decided, as cases decided in one year may be reported in the next. The Bluebook is a commonly used guide to legal citation in the United States. It provides guidelines for creating simple and straightforward case names and citations.
In Australia, legal citation generally mirrors the methods used in England, with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) being a widely used resource. Australian courts and tribunals have adopted a neutral citation standard for case law, providing a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case in a law report. In Canada, there are various citation standards, with many legal publishing companies and schools having their own.
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Using citators
Citators are a valuable tool for legal professionals to identify past court case decisions. They are a series of books called reporters or law reports that are laid out in a specific and consistent manner. This enables readers to easily find the text of a decision in a reporter. The typical form of a citation to a decision includes the names of the lead parties, such as the plaintiff or appellant versus the defendant or appellee. For instance, in the example "Hebb v. Severson, 201 P.2d 156 (Wash. 1948)", Hebb and Severson are the parties in the case.
The precise format of a case citation depends on several factors, including the jurisdiction, court, and type of case. In court documents, the full case name is usually italicized or underlined, whereas in academic legal writing, full case names are generally not underlined or italicized. In academic writing, the full citation of a particular case is only used at its first occurrence; after that, its shortened form is used.
There are several guides to help with the basic format of case citations, such as The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, which is the most widely used legal citation style. The Bluebook also provides a table of reporters and reporter abbreviations, courts and court abbreviations, and preferred sources to cite for federal and state courts. The Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) is another widely used guide, specifically for Australian legal citation. The OSCOLA guide also provides information on the citation of older cases and cases from other parts of the UK.
When citing an opinion of an Advocate General, add the words "Opinion of AG [name]" after the case citation and before any pinpoint. For example, "Case C–411/05 Palacios de la Villa v Cortefiel Servicios SA [2007] ECR I–8531, Opinion of AG Mazák, paras 79–100". When a case appears in both an official reporter and a regional reporter, either citation can be used, although citing the regional reporter is generally preferred.
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Finding California case law
Online
California Court of Appeals and Supreme Court cases can be found online for free. The California state court system is divided into three levels, with the California Supreme Court at the top, followed by the California Courts of Appeal, and then the trial courts. The California Supreme Court reviews appeals of decisions by the California Courts of Appeal and trial courts in death penalty cases. Decisions by the California Supreme Court are final unless reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Law Library
Law libraries have cases in print or available online through a legal database. When searching for California case law in a law library, you can refer to the California Official Reports (Advance Sheets) for opinions of the California Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and Appellate Departments of Superior Courts. These opinions are published in at least two recognised reporter sets: the official reporter (California Reports) and two West reporters (Pacific Reporter and California Reporter).
Using Case Citations
Case citations are structured by volume number, reporter abbreviation, and the first page of the case. For example, a case citation for Hutcherson v. Alexander in 1968 would be: 264 Cal. App. 2d 126, 70 Cal. Rptr. 366 (1968). Once you have the citation, you can look up the case online or in a reporter.
Using Topics or Keywords
To find California cases by topic or keyword, you can refer to the West Key Number System, an index of American Law that uses both topics and a number system to classify legal topics. West's California Reporter (Advance Sheets) provides recent opinions of the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and Appellate Departments of Superior Courts. Lexis+ also has a headnote system that allows researchers to find cases by topic.
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Using Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a useful resource for finding case law and conducting legal research. It provides access to an extensive database of federal and state judicial opinions at no cost. However, it is important to be aware of its limitations. While Google Scholar offers a wide variety of judicial opinions for many different courts, it does not provide all the viewing features of commercially available legal research tools such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. For instance, you won't be able to see a case synopsis or headnotes.
To find case law on Google Scholar, you can use either the citation or party names. If you know the case citation, simply enter it into the search box. You can also search by entering a specific citation to a case in the search box. For example, "276 Md. 580". If you don't know the citation, you can search using the case name, such as "Roe v. Wade". Additionally, you can use keywords to search the full text of judicial opinions to find a specific subject, such as "qualified immunity" or "hostile work environment".
After performing your initial search, you can narrow down your results using the facets on the left-hand side. One of the most useful facets is the ability to narrow by jurisdiction. To do this, select "Select Courts" and then choose the specific courts you want to search. This can be especially helpful when searching for cases at the state level, as Google Scholar contains every state supreme court and appellate case since the 1950s.
Another useful feature of Google Scholar is the "How Cited" function. This feature lists other cases in the Google Scholar database that cite your chosen case. This can be helpful in understanding how the case has been treated by other courts and whether it has been altered, overturned, or reinterpreted. However, it is important to note that you will need to read the citing opinions to determine whether they cite the original case approvingly or disapprovingly. Additionally, while the "How Cited" feature provides an overview of how the case has been treated, it is not considered as authoritative as citators produced by other publishers or subscription resources. Therefore, it is recommended to use this feature with caution and verify the information by reading the opinions.
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