Cameron Miranda
There are several ways to look up case law in Lexis, including by citation, party name, and topic. When searching for case law via party name, the order of the names does not matter. For example, searching for Jones v Clinton will yield the same results as Clinton v Jones. When searching for an individual litigant, judge, or attorney by name, place /3 between their first and last name to retrieve cases that use their middle name. You can also use the Court segment field to retrieve cases from a particular court. For example, to retrieve cases decided in the previous month by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, click Advanced Search, select Cases as your content type, enter southern district of new york in the Court field, and select the date range.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Search by | Party name, citation, topic, attorney name, court, date, docket number, case name |
| Search operators | AND, w/n, /3 |
| Search tips | Order of party names does not matter, search for singular, plural, and possessive forms of terms, use quotation marks for exact matches |
| Other | Headnotes are used to find more cases on the same legal issue |
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What You'll Learn
Using the Advanced Search Form
To look up case law in Lexis using the Advanced Search Form, follow these steps:
- Begin by selecting "Cases" on the homepage.
- Choose the specific jurisdiction of interest, such as "All Federal" or a specific circuit or state court.
- Click on "Advanced Search" above the search bar.
- Utilise the Party Name field to retrieve cases when you know the names of the involved parties. This ensures that the search results include cases where these names were used for parties, providing more relevant information.
- If you know the name of the attorney or law firm representing one of the parties, use the Attorney Name field. You can also search by bar number or use specific terms like "bar /5 'no'" or "number" to narrow down your search.
- To find decisions written by a specific judge, use the WRITTENBY segment field.
- To retrieve cases from a particular court, use the Court segment field.
- If you have a docket number, use the NUMBER segment field. Docket numbers are a series of alpha and/or numeric characters assigned by the court to identify a case.
- You can also search for cases by citation, party, and topic. A legal citation typically includes the volume, the abbreviation for the book or reporter, and the page number.
- Utilise the various Document Fields available, such as Date, Citation, Synopsis, Judge, Attorney, Court Name, Docket Number, and Full-Text, to refine your search and locate relevant case law.
These steps should help you effectively use the Advanced Search Form to find case law in Lexis.
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Searching by case name
When searching for case law on Lexis by case name, it is important to know that Lexis uses case recognition technology to search for the names in the case name. If you know the case name but not the citation, simply enter the case name in the search box. For two-party cases, enter the party names separated by a "v" or "v." and run the search. The "v" must be lowercase. The order of the names does not matter—searching "Jones v Clinton" will retrieve the same results as "Clinton v Jones."
For single-party cases where the case name includes "In re", "Ex parte", "Ex rel", "In the matter of", "Estate of", "Will of", "Matter of", "On the relation of", "On behalf of", "For the use of", "As next friend of", "Petition of", or "Application of", enter the party name in the search box and run the search. Case recognition technology is used to search for the name along with the designation. For example, when you run a search for "In re Witherspoon", your results include "In re Witherspoon", "In re Estate of Witherspoon", and "In re Objection to Nomination of Williams-Witherspoon".
To narrow down your results, use the NAME segment to run your search, using the AND connector between the party names. For example, run the search name(matsushita and zenith). Alternatively, run the search using quotation marks around the "v", "In re", "Ex parte", etc. For example, run the search “In re” witherspoon.
If you know the names of the attorneys or law firms representing one or more of the parties, you can use the Attorney Name segment field in the Advanced Search form to retrieve cases.
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Searching by party name
When searching for case law in Lexis, there are three main ways to search: by citation, party, or topic. This response will focus on searching by party name.
If you are searching for a case with two parties, enter the party names separated by a 'v' or 'v.' and run the search. For example, a search for 'Matsushita v Zenith' will return results including 'Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp.' and 'Zenith Radio Corp. v. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co.' The order of the names does not matter, so searching 'Jones v Clinton' will retrieve the same results as 'Clinton v Jones.'
When searching for a single party case, where the case name includes 'In re', 'Ex parte', 'Ex rel', 'In the matter of', 'Estate of', 'Will of', 'Matter of', 'On the relation of', 'On behalf of', 'For the use of', 'As next friend of', 'Petition of', or 'Application of', enter the party name in the search box and run the search. For example, searching for 'In re Witherspoon' can be achieved by running the search "in re" witherspoon.
If you are searching for an individual litigant, judge, or attorney's name, place '/3' between their first and last name to retrieve cases that use their middle name. For example, 'Smith/3' will search for 'John Smith' and 'Jane Smith-Doe.' You may also want to place quotes around law firm or company names to search for only that exact name.
To retrieve a case when you know the parties' names, use the Party Name segment field in the Advanced Search form. For example, to retrieve the Supreme Court of the United States' decision in 'Wright v. Universal Maritime Serv. Corp.', click 'Advanced Search,' click 'Select a specific content type,' click 'Cases,' enter 'Wright and Universal Maritime' in the Party Name field, and click 'Search.'
You can also use Google Scholar to find cases by party name. From the Google Scholar page, enter the name or names that you know in the search box. Make sure the "Case Law" button is activated below the search box. You can select your case's jurisdiction if you know it on the main Google Scholar search page. Click "Search" when you are finished entering your information.
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Searching by attorney name
To search for case law by attorney name in Lexis, you can use the Attorney Name segment field in the Advanced Search form. This allows you to retrieve cases when you know the name of the attorney or law firm representing one of the parties.
When searching for an individual attorney's name, you can place /3 between their first and last name to retrieve cases that use their middle name. For example, "Clarence w/3 Darrow". You can also search by bar number using the Attorney Name field.
On Lexis CourtLink, you can select a court or courts from the drop-down menu and enter your search in the following format: plaintiff-attorney([attorney's name]) or defendant-attorney([attorney's name]) or others-attorney([attorney's name]).
On Westlaw, use the Advanced Search option and pre-select Cases, then type the attorney's name in the Attorney field. You can also use the connector "AT" on Westlaw and Lexis: AT("john smith") or ATTORNEY("john smith").
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Searching by docket number
To search for case law by docket number on Lexis, you can use the Advanced Search function.
Firstly, from the Lexis home page, select "Dockets (CourtLink)" beneath the "Content" tab. Then, after selecting one or more courts from the "Within" drop-down menu, you will be able to enter the docket number in the "NUMBER" segment field.
Docket numbers are a series of alpha and/or numeric characters assigned by the court to identify a case. For example, to retrieve the full text of an Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals case with docket No. 93-2314, you would click "Advanced Search", then "Select a specific content type", followed by "Cases". You would then enter "93" and "2314" in the "Number" field and "Eleventh" in the "Court" field.
It is important to note that docket number formats vary and may have intervening characters, such as "cv", "civ", "cr", and "crim", that appear between the first and last sets of numbers. To find docket numbers containing these intervening characters, use the "AND" connector.
Additionally, when searching for an individual litigant, judge, or attorney's name, place /3 between their first and last names to retrieve cases that include their middle name. You may also want to place quotation marks around law firm or company names to search for only that exact name.
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Frequently asked questions
There are three ways to search for case law using Lexis: by citation, party, and topic.
There are three parts to a legal citation: volume, abbreviation for the book (reporter), and the page number. The volume is indicated by the first number of the citation. The book abbreviation or reporter abbreviation comes next.
Use the Party Name field in the Advanced Search form to retrieve a case when you know the party names. The order of the names does not matter.
Lexis searches the case law's headnotes. Headnotes quickly identify the different legal topics and issues covered in the case.
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