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Case Law Research Guide

WHY FIND A CASE?

Every law student and practicing attorney must be able to find, read, analyze, and interpret case law. Under the common law principles of stare decisis, a court must follow the decisions in previous cases on the same legal topic. Therefore, finding cases is essential to finding out what the law is on a particular issue. This guide will show you how to read a case citation and will set out the sources, both print and online, for finding cases.

For additional information on finding and using cases, read our Digests research guide [http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/digests.cfm] or our online Cases and Digests Tutorial [http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/tutorials/cases/]. For assistance with finding cases, contact the Library's reference librarians [http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/staff/ps/reference/index.cfm].

CITATIONS

A case citation is a reference to where a case (also called a decision or an opinion ) is printed in a book. The citation can also be used to retrieve cases from Westlaw [http://lawschool.westlaw.com] and Lexis [http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/]. A case citation consists of a volume number, an abbreviation of the title of the book or other item, and a page number. For example:

265 U.S. 274
volume number abbreviation for the book page number

In this example, U.S. is the abbreviation for United States Reports, one place where Supreme Court opinions are published.

Parallel Citations

When the same case is printed in different books, citations to more than one book may be given. These additional citations are known as parallel citations.

Example: 26 U.S. 274, 68 L. Ed. 1016, 44 S. Ct. 565.

This means that the case you would find at page 565 of volume 44 of the Supreme Court Reporter (published by West) will be the same case you find on page 1016 of volume 68 of Lawyers' Edition (published by Lexis), and both will be the same as the opinion you find in the official government version, United States Reports. Although the text of the opinion will be identical, the added editorial material will differ with each publisher.

REPORTERS

The sets of books which publish cases are called reporters , and each one has a designated abbreviation. Reporters may be grouped into four kinds:

  1. Federal reporters (report federal cases)
  2. Regional reporters (report cases from a group of states)
  3. State reporters (report cases from a specific state)
  4. Subject reporters (report cases from various jurisdictions which deal a certain area of law, e.g., environment or patents)

Federal, regional, and state reporters are located on the fourth floor.

Federal Reporters

U.S. United States Reports
Supreme Court opinions (official)
L. Ed., L. Ed. 2d Lawyers' Edition, 1st, 2d series
Supreme Court opinions (Lexis Law Publishing)
S. Ct. Supreme Court Reporter
Supreme Court opinions (West Publishing)
F., F.2d, F.3d Federal Reporter, 1st, 2d, 3d series 
1st: Federal district and appellate court opinions (to 1925)
2nd: Federal appellate court opinions (1925-1993)
3rd: Federal appellate court opinions (1993- )
F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d Federal Supplement, 1st, 2d series
1st: Federal district court opinions (1931-1998)
2d: Federal district court opinions (1998- )
F. App. Federal Appendix
Federal appellate court opinions (not reported in F.3d) (2001- )

Regional Reporters

A., A.2d Atlantic Reporter, 1st, 2d series 
Opinions from CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, NH, NJ, PA, RI, VT
N.E., N.E.2d North Eastern Reporter, 1st, 2d series 
Opinions from IL, IN, MA, NY, OH
NW., N.W.2d North Western Reporter, 1st, 2d series 
Opinions from IA, MI, MN, NE, ND, SD, WI
P., P.2d, P.3d Pacific Reporter, 1st, 2d, 3d series 
Opinions from AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, NV, NM, OK, OR, UT, WA, WY
S.E., S.E.2d South Eastern Reporter, 1st, 2d series 
Opinions from GA, NC, SC, VA, WV
S.W., S.W.2d, S.W.3d South Western Reporter, 1st, 2d, 3d series 
Opinions from AR, KY, MO, TN, TX
S., S.2d Southern Reporter, 1st, 2d series 
Opinions from AL, FL, LA, MS

State Reporters

Generally a state reporter's abbreviation will include the state's abbreviation (i.e., "Va." is the abbreviation for Virginia Reports, "Md. App." stands for Maryland Appellate Reports .)  Not all states have their own reporters, in which case you must use the Regional reporters. See the pages 188-241 of the Bluebook for further details, or ask a reference librarian.

LEXIS & WESTLAW

All of the cases published in the reporters are also available in full text on Westlaw, and most are available on Lexis, too. Only some of the older state cases may not be available on Lexis. In addition to the full text of cases, Westlaw has PDF images of all cases published in the federal and regional reporters since 1980. Lexis and Westlaw offer case law searching by citation, jurisdiction, and subject.

INTERNET SOURCES

There are many Internet sites that offer the full text of court opinions free of charge. These sites are best used to access recent decisions when the case name, title, or date is known. The Internet is not recommended for precedent research because the sites are not comprehensive and subject searching is not as sophisticated as print, Westlaw, or Lexis.

Supreme Court Cases

United States Supreme Court - www.supremecourtus.gov/
This official site contains Supreme Court decisions beginning with the 2000 term. It also contains useful information about the Court and its docket.

Findlaw - www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
Findlaw offers a searchable database of Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1893. This database is browsable by year and United States Reports volume number and is searchable by citation, case name, and full text.

Legal Information Institute - supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
The Cornell University Legal Information Institute offers opinions of the Court issued since May 1990. Earlier opinions are also available; however, there are some gaps in coverage.

GPO Access - www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/supcrt/index.html This database is being made available by the Government Printing Office to the public as a finding aid to the official version of the United States Reports. The coverage of this site includes the years 1937-1975, vols. 300-422 of the official United States Reports. This site is searchable by full text, case name, and citation.

Lower Federal Court Cases

Court Links - www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/
Maintained by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, this page includes links to appellate and district court home pages, most of which provide recent opinions.

Federal Court Locator - http://www.law.villanova.edu/library/researchguides/fedcourtlocator.asp
The Villanova University School of Law maintains this page that provides links to home pages and opinions of Federal Courts.

Federal Court Finder - http://www.law.emory.edu/index.php?id=2997
The Emory School of Law maintains this page. It includes a US Circuiilt Courts map.

State Court Cases

State Court Web Sites - http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/info_court_web_sites.html#State
The list is maintained by the National Center for State Courts.

Revised 10/07 (SK)

Page last saved 26-Aug-2008