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P4P: Cases

Published on Jan 06, 2016

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P4P: Case law

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  • Reporters: Where to find a case
  • Digests: How to find THE case
  • Citators: Is THE case still THE case
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Reporters

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Case law
is published in reporters




which contain all of the cases for one or more jurisdictions
in chronological order.

Case law is published in reporters, which contain all of the cases for one or more jurisdictions in chronological order. There are individual state reporters for many states, as well as seven West regional reporters, each covering several states that are somewhat geographically close: Atlantic, Northeastern, Northwestern, Pacific, Southern, Southwestern, Southeastern. The National Reporter System map shows which states are covered by each reporter.
While state reporters contain only the text of the case as issued by the court, the regional reporters include additional features including headnotes with topics and key numbers.
Note that there are also federal reporters for the federal courts: Federal Supplement (District Courts), Federal Reporter (Courts of Appeals) and United States Reports, Supreme Court Reporter, U.S. Supreme Court Reports - Lawyers Edition (Supreme Court). The Federal Supplement, Federal Reporter, and Supreme Court Reporter are West Reporters, which means that they include headnotes, topics and key numbers.

See the library's guide on this topic at:
http://lawguides.rwu.edu/c.php?g=179369&p=1178709%20-%2010660046

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Reporters: Jurisdictional, Geographical, Subject

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Official vs. Unofficial

See Bluebook Rule 10.3.2
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Digests

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A digest


collects all of the headnotes for cases


and arranges them by topic and key number (subtopic).

A digest collects all of the headnotes for cases and arranges them by topic and key number (subtopic). There are four regional digests: Atlantic, Northwestern, Pacific, Southeastern. For regional reporters without a regional digest, use the state digest for each jurisdiction.
Note that there are also federal digests, state digests, and a national digest collecting all of the federal and state cases.

For more information on digests, see the library's libguide at
http://lawguides.rwu.edu/c.php?g=179369&p=1178709%20-%2010660046
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4 parts to a digest

  • Descriptive Word Index
  • Table of Cases
  • Words and Phrases
  • Topic Volumes
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Read the Case:

Don't just read the digest entry
There are four parts to a digest
• Descriptive Word Index: A keyword index that helps you locate the topic and key number covering a particular point of law.
• Table of Cases: By plaintiff and defendant, this table allows you to locate a citation for a case when all you have is the case name and jurisdiction.
• Words and Phrases: These volumes provide citations to cases that provide legal definitions for words and phrases. Excerpts of the cases with the definitions appear in a separate set called Words and Phrases.
• Topic Volumes: Alphabetical volumes by West topics and key numbers.

See the library's libguide at:
http://lawguides.rwu.edu/c.php?g=179369&p=1178709%20-%2010660046

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Citators: Is THE case still THE case

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Citators:

KeyCite or Shepard's
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What do citators do?


◦Verify authority
◦Help distinguish which subsequent citations are particularly important
◦Point toward research sources such as secondary materials.

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Not only are they good for figuring out if your point of law is still good,

but they are good for finding other, relevant cases.
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Using online resources to find case law:

Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg:

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For your consideration:

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What jurisdiction?


What level of court?


What type of document?

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USE THE SCOPE NOTES OF THE DATABASES.

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Learn how to search effectively.


USE THE ADVANCE SEARCH FEATURES.


Even Google has advanced searching features!

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Know the limitations of the resource you selected.



Is this the best one for the job? Maybe try another one?

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PAID v. FREE


IF YOU ARE GOING TO GET IT FOR FREE MAKE SURE THE CITE IS REPUTABLE

Paid vs. Free
WestlawNext
LexisAdvance Bloomberg

Casemaker
Fastcase
Loislaw


Google Scholar
Library/Court websites
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An example:

You are working at a law firm and your supervisor asks you to find Massachusetts cases which apply the D’Oench Duhme Doctrine.
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You are working at a law firm and your supervisor asks you to do some preliminary research.

Find MA/RI/CT cases which apply the D’Oench Duhme Doctrine.

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What is the D’Oench Duhme Doctrine? Check Black’s

Step 1
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Choose a digest.

Step 2
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This is based on what is available.



The RWU Law Library has the MA Digest and the Atlantic Digest in print and updated.

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Choose an entry point.

Step 3
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If you know enough about your topic to use the topic volumes, you might want to start there.


Caution: The topics tend to be broad and they sometimes use antiquated language.

The number of topics changes.

For example, according to the 2014 pocket part, the last number is 414.

However, there is a #450 in a 2012 online doc at http://info.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/documentation/westlaw/wlawdoc...
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Because the topics are broad, to find cases you would need to figure out what topic or topics D’Oench Duhme might fall under.



A good way to do this would be to review the digest’s descriptive word index.


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The descriptive word index allows you to look find descriptive words based on:
parties
places
objects
things
acts
omissions
basis of action
defense
relief

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If you use the descriptive word index, you will see an entry for D’Oench Duhme.


Under the entry you will find topics and key numbers.

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What is a B & L Assoc?




In the front of every descriptive word index, there is a list of abbreviations.

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The main volume of the index is only as current as its publication date.


Don’t forget to also check the pocket part/supplement of the index in case they have updated this in any way.

(Which they have!)

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Go to the topic volume.

Step 4
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Now that I have a topic and a number, I can use the books to find citations to cases.


I would find the B & L Assoc. book, find Key number 42(6) and identify cases.


If I used the MA digest there would only be results from MA. If I used the Atlantic Digest, there will be cases from several states.

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Don’t forget to check the pocket part/supplement for the actual digest, too. There may be new cases!

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If you want to get the MOST up-to-date research, you can use the same topics and key numbers and update your work.


For example, sign into WLNext, type “key” into the box and select West Key Number Search, choose B & L again, and they number you found and then limit the jurisdiction and you can find out if there are any additional cases.

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Read the cases (and Shepardize them, too)

Step 5
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Things to consider:

You might want to check the federal, too. There are print digests for those cases, as well.

Table of cases: While this is available to use, it is not quite right for this question because we don’t have a case as our entry point.

This can work in reverse: Say the lawyer gave you a case and wanted similar cases. You can review the case, find the key numbers and then do a key number search to locate relevant cases.

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Stuck?
Call a librarian.

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