Caselaw and citators fall 2011

Case Law and Citators
Legal Research and Writing
Fall 2011

Why Court Opinions?
PRIMARY SOURCES
Cases
Courts
Statutes
Legislatures
Regulations
Executive Agencies

Court Hierarchy
Court HierarchyFrom the Bottom Up
Trial Court
Court of original jurisdiction
Court of general jurisdiction
Court of limited jurisdiction
Family court, traffic court, juvenile court
Proper name varies from state to state
Intermediate Appellate Review
Name & Number of levels vary
Court of Last Resort
Supreme Court of [State]
Supreme Court of the United States
See The Bluebook, Table T.1 for a breakdown of courts for each state

Cases: Print Publication Sequence
Slip Opinions
Distributed by the court; official
Increasingly distributed online, official status must be determined by the court rules
Put on electronic databases
Advance Sheets
Preliminary version of a case in a reporter
Contain same editorial notes and pagination as bound volume
Judge can make changes
Reporter
Permanent version of decision

Reporters
Compilation of court decisions
Generally chronological arrangement
Can include decisions of:
a single court
single level of a court system
a single state
a region of the country (a number of states)
a specific legal subject (topical reporters)
These are increasingly rare in print
? What makes it into the Reporters?

National Reporter SystemWest Publishing (since 1880s)
Publishes “reported” federal and state cases
Court rules are increasingly allowing the use of unreported cases—the line is bluring.
Provides uniform editorial treatment
Synopsis
Headnotes
Cross referencing material
Are NOT part of the case!!
No substitute for reading the case!
Some are unofficial, although some have been designated as a state’s official reporter

Case headnotes
Headnote – a summary of a legal issue discussed in the case
Each headnote is assigned at least one specific topic
West reporters integrate headnotes and their specific topics with the West digest system (more later!)

Headnote – note summary of specific point of case

How to find cases
Reporters tend to be a collection of unrelated cases, so we have to have a finding aid such as:
Digests
Secondary sources
American Law Reports (ALR)
Annotated codes
Citators – Shepards & Keycite
Electronic Databases

Digest
A subject arrangement of case summaries
Includes an outline or classification of the law or specific area of law
Case summaries are organized in the outline, under the specific issue raised in the case

West’s Digest System
Most comprehensive print case finding tool
An index to all reported court decisions and some “unreported” decisions
Only case finding tool for many older state cases not on electronic databases

Structure of Digest
Arrangement – topic/key number system
Outline of the field of law
Divided law into major subjects
Each subject divided into topics (400 total) and sub-topics
Each sub-topic assigned a key number
Cases assigned to specific topic/key number based on the case headnotes

Using the Print Digest
1. Choose digest set
Louisiana digest, regional digests*(not all regional reporters have digests), federal digests
2. Dig In!
Use case headnote
Subject and topical analyses
Search Descriptive Word Index
Words and Phrases
(defines words, but is often limited)

Using the Print Digest
“Terms” from case, client meeting, etc.
Read a case (headnote) or secondary source
Descriptive Word Index
(Gives you)
Topic & Key Number
Go to Volume containing topic and look up Key #
Read Topic Outline
Read case descriptions and pull and read relevant cases

Updating Print Digests
Be sure to check:
1. Main digest volume
2. Pocket part
Some pocket parts are so large, the publisher creates a separate bound volume
3. Cumulative supplements for the digest set
Small paperback supplements following the last volume in the set (some sets may not have this)

Hypothetical-Louisiana Case Law Digest 2nd Your divorcing client seeks alimony from her husband. She currently resides with her 5 year old daughter from the marriage as well as her stepdaughter who is six years old. Other than taking care of her two minor children and her household, she has no training for any kind of a job and is unemployed. Is she entitled to alimony under Louisiana law?
Terms: Alimony; Support; Allowance; Divorce; Nullification of Marriage
A) Louisiana Case Digest Second-Descriptive Word Index –look under “A” for Alimony
B) You find that it is under Marrriage Key #62
C) Go to Louisiana Case Digest volume which contains “Marriage”-it’s volume 38-on the spine “LisPendens to Master”
D) Read case entries, find case on point and update

If you have a case:
Select headnote dealing with your legal issue
Use the corresponding topic and key number
In print, go right to the appropriate volume
In Electronic…
Westlaw allows you to directly access online digest from case headnote…from there you can create a custom digest…

Westlaw allows you to directly access online digest from case headnote
Click here

Choose what jurisdiction you want to find cases in
Add additional search terms

List of cases and materials on topic for jurisdiction you selected

Click here for current page
Type in search terms to have Westlaw help you find right topic/key number

Select best topic/key number from results list

Lexis
“Search by Topic or Headnote”
Broad areas of law
Drill down to more specific issues
If you have a case
Lexis headnotes
not the same as West headnotes!
“More like this”
Core terms

Select subject area and drill down

Subjects break down into specific sub-topics.
Select your sub-topic.

Select jurisdiction, sources, and further refine your search

“More like this” uses core terms
Lexis Headnotes
Click Here

“More like this” allows you to search other cases with similar core terms.
Can add your own terms.

Citators
List subsequent cases, law review articles, statutes, and other secondary sources that refer to an earlier case.
Way of tracking how a case has been used subsequently by courts, legislatures or commentators
So What?

Uses for Citators
Subsequent appellate history of your specific case
Subsequent validity of your case
(upheld or followed, overruled in full or in part, distinguished)
Discussion of your case in subsequent cases
Discussion of your case in secondary sources

Shepard’s lays out the subsequent history of the case, providing links to each decision

Westlaw also provides a graphical view of the history of your case

Using Online Citators
Lexis – Shepard’s
Westlaw – KeyCite
Current, no need for updating with additional steps
Links to case citations and secondary sources
*LSU Law Library no longer has an updating method in print!

Using Online Citators
Results can be sorted and narrowed very easily
Sort by negative/positive treatment
Depth of treatment
Jurisdiction
Add additional search terms to narrow retrieved cases

How to Shepardize
2 ways to Shepardize
Directly from a case
From Shepard’s tab on opening Lexis screen with case citation

Shepardize directly from your case.

Shepardize directly from Shepard’s tab
Select Shepard’s for Research for more hits – all citing decisions. You can switch between these on results page by clicking between KWIC and FULL.

Either way, you will come to this page showing the citation history for your case. Note the breakdown of treatment.

Shepard’s lists prior and subsequent appellate history and then lists citing decisions. Under citing decisions, highest level of court is listed first, and federal before state courts.

Quick ways to limit Shepard’s display. Top line allows you to go to negative, positive and focus results. Shepard’s summary permits you to go immediately to specific types of treatment.

Focus – very powerful tool to limit Shepard’s display

Many options for limiting display. Types of analysis, focus terms, jurisdictions. Scroll down for more.

How to KeyCite
2 ways to KeyCite:
Directly from a case
From KeyCite search box on opening Westlaw screen using case citation
“Full history” results give direct history of case, but not many citing references
“Citing references” results do not give direct history of case, but includes references to all citing cases.
*you will often end up looking at both!

Option 1: KeyCite directly from your case. Note you can select “full history” or “citing references”.

Option 2: KeyCite box located on main Westlaw screen on side tab

KeyCite screen comes up. Note that you are brought to “full history” results. This gives you direct case history. To see all citing cases, you must select “citing references” option.

Many more cases referenced, but note that direct history of this case is no longer displayed.

KeyCite Limits
Limit results by:
Jurisdiction
Depth of treatment
Search terms
Date
Headnote (Topic and Key Number)
Must be in “citing references” display to use KeyCite limits

Limiting KeyCite display. Must be in “Citing References”.

Ways to limit are located on left hand vertical bar.
Locate lets you add additional search terms

KeyCite lets you even look at some foreign jurisdictions

Caselaw and citators fall 2011

by Pgragg

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