How to Find Cases

Quick Links:

• Introduction
• Case Finding Methods
• Using Case Law Databases

1. Introduction

When judges and courts decide cases, they often write opinions in which they explain their reasoning in reaching their decisions. These judicial opinions are an important source of legal authority in the United States. Courts try to decide cases on the basis of principles and rules established in earlier cases (called precedents). Some opinions are stronger precedents than others. The precedential value of an opinion depends largely on the level of the court that decided the case.

In the federal judicial system, the decisions of the highest court, the United States Supreme Court, have high precedential value and are binding on all federal courts. In contrast, the decisions of the trial level federal courts (called District Courts) are not binding on any courts, even though they are often cited as persuasive authority. Between these two levels are the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals, each of which has jurisdiction over a particular geographic area or "circuit." A case decided by a particular Circuit Court of Appeals is only binding on the District Courts within that circuit.

Many, though not all, judicial opinions are published in case reporters. Each jurisdiction has at least one case reporter. In order to find a case in a case reporter, you will need to find its "citation," which tells you which reporter volume and page to consult.

The following is an example of a citation to a United States Supreme Court case:

• Silkwood v.Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U.S. 238 (1984)

According to this citation, the case begins on page 238 of volume 464 of the United States Reports (abbreviated as U.S.). Additional examples of case citations as well as a list of the major court reporters in the United States (along with their standard abbreviations) can be found in the USC Law Library's Guide to U.S. Legal Citations and Abbreviations.

2. Case Finding Methods

If you have a case citation, you can go immediately to the appropriate case reporter and look it up or enter the citation in one of the appropriate databases described below. If you do not have a citation, use one or more of the following methods:

Using a Case Name

Case digests serve as indexes to the case reporters. Each digest has a "Table of Cases," which lists cases alphabetically by name and gives citations.

• For United States Supreme Court cases, use the United States Supreme Court Digest.
• For other federal cases, use West's Federal Practice Digest. Use the most current series of this digest (4th series) if your case was decided since the early 1980s.
• For California cases, use West's California Digest.

The "Table of Cases" volumes are typically located near the end of each digest set. Look for your case name alphabetically in the appropriate volume. If your case is very recent, you may need to check the volume's supplement or "pocket part" (the paper booklet inserted in the back pocket of the bound volume), which contains the most current information.

If your case is fairly well-known, you can use a legal periodical index, such as Index to Legal Periodicals or LegalTrac. Input some of the words from your case's name. For example, input "roe wade" as a key word search if looking for the citation for the Roe v.Wade case. Consult the USC Law Library guide How to Find Law Journal Articles for more information on legal periodical indexes.

You can also use an online case law database to find a case by case name (see below).

Searching by Topic

It is recommended that you use books and articles to find references to cases related to your topic. Consult the USC Law Library guides Starting Points to Begin Your Research and How to Find Law Journal Articles for information on finding books and articles that may help you in this regard.

If you are looking for cases related to a relevant federal or California statute or constitutional provision, consult the USC Law Library's federal or California statutory research guide (Finding Federal Statutes, Regulations, and Related Cases or Finding California Statutes, Regulations, and Related Cases).

You can also use an online case law database to find a case by topic (see below).

3. Using Case Law Databases

LexisNexis Academic (restricted to USC library users)

Cases can be accessed on the USC campus via LexisNexis Academic. The Federal and State Cases search page on LexisNexis (which is contained in the "Search - Legal" folder) is where you can search for cases by case citation, case name, or key word:

• Searching by Citation: If you search by citation, use the standard case citation format discussed above and enter your citation in the "Citation Number" box. Sample citations can be found by clicking on the "Citation Help" link next to this box.
• Searching by Case Name: If you have a case name, you can enter the party names in the "Case Name" boxes. If you know which jurisdiction the case is from, you can indicate that by using the Sources pull down menu.
• Searching by Topic: If you are searching by topic, you can enter your key word(s) in the Search Terms box at the top of the screen. There are two searching methods:
  
  
  • Terms and Connectors: This is the default searching method in which you place connectors between your terms and phrases to show the desired relationships between them in the cases. The AND connector between terms and phrases indicates that both must be in the case, while the OR connector indicates that only one of them needs to be in the case. To look for cases in which your terms or phrases appear in close proximity to each other, use one of the "within" connectors instead of the AND connector:
    
    
    • w/n (within n words of, e.g., w/10, w/20, etc.)
    • w/s (within the same sentence)
    • w/p (within the same paragraph)
    Example:
    • free speech w/s school or college
      This search will look for cases in which the phrase free speech appears within the same sentence as either school or college.
    You can truncate terms with an exclamation mark (!) to pull up different versions of a particular word.
    
    Example:
    • free speech w/p educat!
      This search will look for cases in which the phrase free speech appears in the same paragraph as either educate, education, or educational.
    If you retrieve too many cases that merely mention your terms once or twice (with no substantial discussion of your topic), you may want to sort your cases by relevancy (which you can do from your results list). You can also edit your search by adding the atleast command to indicate that one or more terms must appear in each case at least a certain number of times.
    
    Example:
    • atleast5(free speech) w/p school
      This search requires that free speech appear in each case at least 5 times.
    You can click on the link just below the search box to learn more about LexisNexis connectors and commands.
  • Natural Language: This is the more basic searching method in which you merely enter your relevant terms (without connectors, commands, or special symbols) and LexisNexis retrieves the most "relevant" cases (based largely on the frequency in which your terms appear in the cases), ranked in order of relevancy.
    
    It is recommended that you place quotation marks around exact phrases when doing a Natural Language search. You may also want to include major synonyms and alternative forms of a word in the Natural Language mode.
    
    Example:
    • "free speech" school university
  Make sure you choose the jurisdiction you're interested in by using the "Select Sources" pull down menu.

Publicly Accessible Websites

Many online databases for case law research, including LexisNexis Academic, are restricted to paid subscribers. There are however some publicly available websites that allow one to search for cases without a subscription.

There are a number of websites that provide access to federal court opinions:

• Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute has put together a federal Judicial Opinions webpage that provides access to each federal court's judicial opinion web page. This page also includes a link that allows you to search opinions from all federal circuit courts at the same time.
• The FindLaw website has a U.S. Circuit Court Opinions page that provides links to searchable databases for each of the federal Courts of Appeals. Each database allows you to search for opinions by docket number, party name, or key word ("Full-Text Search"). Below the "Full-Text Search" box is a link to a search help page that provides guidance on how to set up effective key word searches. While this website is free to use, you must register with FindLaw to obtain full access to these databases.
• The Administrative Office of the Courts website provides information on each of the federal courts and also provides links to each court's webpage.

For California court opinions, you can use one of the following two websites:

• The FindLaw website has a California Case Law page that allows you to search for California state court opinions from 1934 to the present. Cases contain official citations and page numbers. Like the FindLaw "U.S. Circuit Court Opinions" page described above, this database is searchable by docket number, party name, or key word. Additionally, you can search by the official Cal. or Cal. App. citation or by the name of the judge or one of the attorneys in the case. As with the federal FindLaw databases, you must register with Findlaw to obtain full access to this database.
• The California Official Reports page (powered by LexisNexis) allows you to search for California cases (for free) in the LexisNexis database.
  
  
  You can do a key word search in this database or search by the official (Cal. or Cal. App.) citation. The default key word search method is the Natural Language search (described above in the section on LexisNexis Academic). If you wish to use the Terms and Connectors searching method, you need to first click on the "Click Here For Advanced Search" link under the Natural Language search box, as shown above. You will then be able to select "Terms and Connectors" as your searching method, as shown below:
  
  
  The search connectors you can use in your Terms and Connectors search are shown on the right of the screen, in the "Search Help" box. To learn how a particular connector operates, merely place your cursor on that connector and a description of the connector will appear on the screen.