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#Case Law Research Guide

Table of Contents

This guide details how to read a case citation and sets out the print and online sources for finding cases.

INTRODUCTION

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 or our online Cases and Digests Tutorial .

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 and Lexis. 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, the citation 265 U.S. 274 can be broken into the following parts:

Volume number: 265

Abbreviation for the book: U.S.

Page number: 274

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: 265 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.