Gavin Howe
Case law is an important aspect of the common law system, emphasizing the precedential value of legal decisions. While print reporters and commercial electronic databases were once the primary sources for case law research, the digital age has expanded access to free online databases and resources. Libraries, such as the Library of Congress, offer guides and tools to help researchers locate case law authorities. These include research guides, online databases, and access to recent decisions and reports. Additionally, public access law libraries, like those in New York, provide legal information, including laws, court cases, and related materials, ensuring that legal knowledge is readily available to all.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Search Tools | Google Scholar, CourtListener, Caselaw Access Project, FindLaw, Justia, Guide to Law Online, HeinOnline, Nexis Uni, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts federal court finder tool, IALS Library catalogue |
| Search Parameters | Jurisdiction, subject, keyword, date |
| Identifying Law Reports and Digests | Law reports can be identified by the letter G in the middle of the classmark; digests can be identified by the letter H in the middle of the classmark |
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What You'll Learn
Using online resources
There are several freely available online resources for locating case law authorities. Google Scholar offers a database of state and federal cases. To access this, click the “legal documents” button, select the “case law” radio button, and choose your search terms. You can also use the advanced search feature to search for a specific phrase or exclude certain terms. After searching, you can use the facets on the left-hand side to narrow your results by jurisdiction.
FindLaw offers a database of case law from the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as several state supreme courts. It includes U.S. Supreme Court opinions, a blog about recent Supreme Court events, U.S. Federal Appellate Court opinions, and U.S. State Supreme, Appellate, and Trial Court opinions.
Justia offers cases from the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and U.S. District Courts, as well as links to many state supreme court and intermediate court of appeal cases. To locate a case, enter a keyword and use the drop-down menu to choose a jurisdiction, or click on a hyperlinked jurisdiction, choose a court and date, and browse through a list of cases.
The Public Library of Law (PLOL) offers cases from the U.S. Supreme Court (from 1754 to the present), U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal (mostly from 1951 to the present), and state cases (from 1997 to the present). You can perform a keyword search or limit your search by court and date using the "Advanced Options" link.
Additionally, the Federal Court Cases Integrated Database (IDB) provided by the Federal Judicial Center offers case data (not documents) for criminal, civil, appellate, and bankruptcy cases. Information on accessing opinions and case-related documents for the Supreme Court of the United States is available on the court's website.
It is important to note that not all case law may be available online due to privacy concerns, especially in cases involving confidential information or sensitive topics. In such cases, case records may be available at the courthouse or through public access terminals in the clerk's office.
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Understanding case law sources
Case law refers to the reported decisions or "opinions" of courts, which interpret existing law based on a set of facts. Case law is based on judicial decisions and opinions, whereas statutory law comes from legislative bodies and administrative law comes from executive bodies. Each branch of government produces a different type of law.
There are two types of sources for case law: primary and secondary. Primary sources establish the law and include cases, statutes, regulations, treaties, and constitutions. Relevant primary sources have the greatest influence on the outcome of any legal issue. Secondary sources explain the law but do not establish binding law. They include books and articles written about the law. Secondary sources can influence the creation and interpretation of law, but are not binding.
When researching case law, it is important to note that the United States has a parallel court system, with federal and state courts. Both systems are divided into trial courts and appellate courts. Trial courts determine the facts of a dispute and apply the law, while appellate courts review trial court decisions to ensure the law was applied correctly. Generally, the decisions of higher courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction. Federal courts and state courts have jurisdiction over different matters, and small courts, such as probate or traffic court, have limited jurisdiction.
There are several freely available online resources for finding case law, including:
- The Law Library of Congress provides guides and access to digitized volumes of U.S. Reports.
- The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts offers a federal court finder tool to locate federal court websites, which often include recent decisions.
- The U.S. Supreme Court provides access to recent decisions and bound volumes of U.S. Reports from 1991 onwards.
- The Guide to Law Online provides links to U.S., foreign, and international law resources, including primary legal materials.
- Justia includes case law, statutes, regulations, articles, opinion summaries, and access to Federal District Court dockets.
- The Legal Information Institute (LII) provides primary legal materials, a legal encyclopedia, and the Supreme Court Bulletin.
- The Oyez Project is a multimedia archive of the U.S. Supreme Court, providing audio recordings, information on justices, and a virtual tour.
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Using a law library catalogue
The Library of Congress has created freely-available legal research guides to help researchers locate online case law sources. These guides provide access to digitised bound volumes of the U.S. Reports from 1754 to 2012, as well as recent decisions and bound volumes from 1991 onwards. The Law Library of Congress also provides guides to freely available options for tracking down electronic case law.
The IALS Library at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies provides access to printed sources of case law, which are shelved together with other materials from the same jurisdiction. All print materials are assigned a unique classmark, which designates the type of material and its location within the library. Law reports can be identified by the letter G in the middle of the classmark, while digests use the letter H. To find law reports from the USA, for example, you would enter GP1.G in the library catalogue.
The IALS Library also offers access to a wide range of subscription legal databases, such as Lexis+, which contains full-text law reports from several jurisdictions, including the USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. If you are unable to find a particular case report at the IALS Library, you can refer to online catalogues like Library Hub Discover or WorldCat to search the collections of other academic and specialist libraries.
In New York, each county is required to have a public-access law library with legal information, including laws, court cases, and other materials pertaining to New York State law. Residents can use the online library catalogue, Symphony, to find out what is available at their nearest law library.
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Locating law reports
The BYU Law Library provides some guidance on locating legal information in primary and secondary resources. It suggests that legal periodicals provide articles on a wide variety of law topics, and there are two major indexes to help locate law articles: the Current Law Index and the Index to Legal Periodicals. The Current Law Index goes back to 1980 and can be searched by author, title, and subject, while the Index to Legal Periodicals goes back to 1908 and can be searched by author and subject.
Additionally, the BYU Law Library suggests that treatises are a rich source of legal information on various topics, often written by highly respected authors. These can be located by author, subject, title, or keyword using a library catalog, and many are found in the Reserve Library. Restatements are another important set of books, providing summaries of rules of law on topics such as contracts, foreign relations, and property.
The Law Library of Congress also provides freely available legal research guides to help researchers locate online case law sources. For example, FindLaw offers a database of case law from the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as several state supreme courts.
Finally, the Antonin Scalia Law School provides a list of free legal research sites, including Justia, which includes case law, statutes, regulations, articles, and opinion summaries, and the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University Law School, which provides primary legal materials and a legal encyclopedia.
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Finding cases in law reports not held in the library
If you are unable to find a case report in the library, there are several other options you can try. Many law reports are available in online databases. If you are a member of a library, you may be able to access a range of subscription legal databases via the Law Database page. For example, Lexis+ contains full-text law reports from many jurisdictions, including the USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Westlaw also provides full-text law reports from the USA, UK, Canada, and the EU. If you are unsure which database covers your jurisdiction, you can use the jurisdiction filter on the Law Databases page.
In addition to subscription databases, there are also several free online resources available for finding case law. For example, the Library of Congress has digitized volumes of the United States Reports, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office's govinfo website provides access to select federal court decisions. BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) is another free resource that provides access to transcripts of more recent cases that may not be available in print.
If you are unable to find a case report online, you may need to try alternative sources of information, such as newspaper reports and court records. For example, Trove provides access to historic Australian newspapers up to approximately 1954. Contacting the court directly may also be an option to obtain a transcript of the case.
Finally, if you are looking for a specific case citation, you may need to obtain the title of the law report in which it is published. Case citations typically include the year, volume number, title abbreviation, and first page. With this information, you can search for the law report series title in the library catalogue or online databases.
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Frequently asked questions
There are several ways to locate a case law authority in the library. Here are some suggestions:
- Refer to the relevant Jurisdiction Research Guide or International Law Guide.
- If you have a citation for a reported case, use an index to legal abbreviations to find out what the abbreviation stands for. Then, run a title search on the library catalogue.
- Run a search on the library catalogue for material with a classmark indicating it is a law report or digest from the jurisdiction you are interested in.
- Try searching for cases in online databases such as Google Scholar, CourtListener, Caselaw Access Project, FindLaw, and Justia.
Law reports and digests are the main sources of case law. Law reports can be identified by the letter G in the middle of the classmark, while digests can be identified by the letter H.
The Library of Congress provides access to case law sources through freely-available legal research guides. It also provides access to digitized bound volumes of the U.S. Reports from 1754 to 2012. Additionally, you can use online databases such as FindLaw, which offers a database of case law from the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.
Each county in New York State must have a library with legal information, including laws, court cases, and other materials related to New York State law. You can use the online library catalog, Symphony, to find the closest law library to you. Some examples of law libraries in New York include:
- Bronx County Bronx Supreme Court Law Library
- Madison County Oneida Public Library
- Albany County Francis Bergan Law Library
