This document provides instructions for finding and analyzing criminal law cases from New York State courts. It directs the reader to search for cases using specific keywords, browse through the results to find a case that best answers an assigned question, and look for the facts, holding, and reasoning in the selected case. The document also explains how to print out the full case or a list of case citations.

1. WESTLAWNEXT
Introduction to Criminal Law / CRJS 110– Pesca
This work byValerie LangWaldin, J.D., M.L.S., Associate Professor HVCC is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0
International License.

3. Scroll to Cases by State.
Select your state.

4. Make sure you select State cases.
For this assignment, All New York
State Cases is preferred.

5. Here you are searching all New York State cases from
trial courts (lowest courts), appellate courts
(intermediate courts) and NY’s highest court, the
Court of Appeals.
If you want a phrase, such as search and seizure, put
quotations around the words to make the phrase. In
this example we are searching for case law having
the words rape AND sexual assault.
Here, rape and sexual assault are your key words.

6. You will come up with dozens if not
hundreds of cases. Do not simply
pick the first case! Browse through
them and see which case best
answers your assigned question.
Make sure the case is long enough to
include facts and is not just a small
memorandum of law.

7. After some digging, you
will identify a case that
addresses your question.

9. Facts

10. Holding (the holding is also
found in the opinion of the
case).

11. Reasoning:
Why did the
court decide
as it did?

12. To print out the
entire case:

15. To print a list of
the first 20 case
citations, go to
“Return to list.”