Cecily Zamora
Case law refers to the legal precedent of prior court decisions. There are several ways to find case law, including through secondary sources such as legal encyclopaedias or practice guides, and online databases such as Westlaw, LexisLibrary, or free sites such as FindLaw. To find case law in print, one can refer to law reports, such as The Law Reports, published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR) or the All England Reports.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Case law sources | Westlaw, LexisLibrary, The Law Reports, All England Reports, British & Irish Institute of Legal Information (BAIILI), FindLaw, Georgetown Law Library, WorldLII, AUTLII, CANLII, HKLII, PacLII, Texas Law Library, etc. |
| Case law research tools | Online case law databases, print case law reporters, legal encyclopaedias, legal practice guides, etc. |
| Case law research methods | Keyword searching, subject-specific research guides, topical research guides, state legal research guides, etc. |
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What You'll Learn
Online case law databases
There are numerous online case law databases that can be accessed for free or via subscription. The Library of Congress, for instance, provides access to Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Library Express) and Westlaw Patron Access, which includes court decisions indexed using West's Key Number System. The Library of Congress also has a Guide to Law Online, which provides links to resources on U.S., foreign, and international law. Similarly, the Texas State Law Library provides access to online case law databases and has published legal research guides to help users locate relevant legal information.
There are also several free online sources of case law. For instance, FindLaw provides free access to state and federal court opinions, state laws, and the United States Code. Justia also provides free access to U.S. state constitutions, cases, and links to legislative resources. Coverage, however, varies by state. The Law Library of Congress has also created freely available legal research guides to help researchers locate online case law sources. These guides include a bibliography of links to state-related online resources, such as links to state court websites and online repositories of decisions issued by state courts.
Other free sources of case law include the World Legal Information Institute, which provides access to over 15,000 law-related websites worldwide, and Google Scholar, which allows users to search for academic journal articles, conference papers, and dissertations in the field of law. It is important to note that while these free sources provide a wealth of information, they may not include editorial enhancements and finding aids that legal researchers are accustomed to. For example, these sources may not provide digests or headnotes that organize cases by points of law.
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Printed case law reporters
Unofficial reporters are published by commercial publishers such as West, Lexis, and BNA and are generally not considered official. They reproduce the reported cases within a given jurisdiction and may include editorial enhancements such as headnotes, which are brief summaries of specific points of law decided in a case. While headnotes are useful research tools, they are not considered legal authority and should not be cited. An example of an unofficial reporter is the North Eastern Reporter (N.E.), published by West, which includes the North Eastern Reporter Second Series (N.E.2d) and the North Eastern Reporter Third Series (N.E.3d).
To find a case in a printed reporter, you will need the case citation, which provides the volume number, abbreviated reporter name, series, and starting page number. Some reporters cover specific jurisdictions, such as state reporters, while others are regional and cover several states. For example, the North Western Reporter contains decisions from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
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Subject-specific case reporters
One notable example of a subject-specific case reporter is the West Key Number System, which is widely used in the United States. This system is designed to facilitate legal research by indexing cases according to their subject matter. It encompasses over 400 broad topics, each further subdivided into specific legal concepts known as Key Numbers. For instance, if you are interested in cases concerning dog bites and liability, you would refer to the Descriptive Word Index, locate the relevant topic, and navigate to the corresponding Key Number, which provides a concise summary of the legal issues addressed in those cases.
Another example is the British and Irish Institute of Legal Information (BAILII), which offers free access to an extensive collection of British and Irish primary legal materials. This resource covers over 76 databases across 7 jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and the Pacific Islands. BAILII provides access to recent House of Lords Judgments, making it a valuable source for staying up to date with legal developments.
Additionally, the Scottish Council of Law Reporting is a notable subject-specific case reporter for Scots law. As a "not-for-profit" charitable organisation, it manages the publication of Session Cases and other materials to promote best practices in Scots law.
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Legal encyclopaedias
Two major legal encyclopaedia sets are AmJur and CJS, both published by Thomson Reuters (West). AmJur is available in both Lexis and Westlaw, while CJS is only available in Westlaw. Both sets contain over 100 volumes, organised alphabetically by topic, and include references to Topics and Key Numbers from the West American Digest System. AmJur only cites selected cases, while CJS claims to be comprehensive in its case citations.
Other legal encyclopaedias include Am. Jur. 2d and C.J.S., which can help researchers develop significant knowledge of a field of law and its terminology. The West Group also publishes Words and Phrases, a multi-volume set that organises legal terms of art in alphabetical order with cross-references.
Legal hornbooks are similar to encyclopaedias but are designed as teaching tools for law students. They provide more detailed treatments of particular areas of law than encyclopaedias, including summaries of landmark cases.
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Court opinions
Another option is FindLaw, which provides a searchable database of United States Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1760. Users can browse decisions by calendar year, party name, case title, or citation. Additionally, the University of Washington Law Library offers resources for finding federal court opinions, including links to collections of free court opinions on Westlaw Campus Research, Fastcase, HeinOnline, Bloomberg Law, Lexis Advance, and WestlawNext.
For those seeking Maryland case law, the Thurgood Marshall State Law Library provides a research guide on Maryland Case Law Sources, which includes information about appellate court opinions available on the Maryland Judiciary website. Google Scholar is another option, offering Maryland appellate opinions from the 1950s to the present, as well as federal cases.
It is worth noting that finding opinions on a particular topic can be challenging, especially when relying solely on free online sources. Preliminary research using secondary sources is recommended to facilitate the search process. Additionally, unreported opinions, which are court opinions that are not published, may have rules regarding their reliability in certain jurisdictions.
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