Researching Case Law

HeinOnline provides complete coverage of the official U.S. Reports, an indexed compilation of the official full text of all decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the official record of its rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings. The Introduction to the U.S. Supreme Court Library provides a brief overview of the Supreme Court as well as a description of the database.
 

Case Example:

Bush v. Gore, 531 US 98 (2000)

In this example the name of the case is Bush v. Gore. The year of the case is 2000. The authorised law report citation for this case is 531 US 98.
 

Finding US cases on HeinOnline

1. Go to the HeinOnline database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. From the homepage, in Browse Databases by Category section under the search bar. Select Case Law and then click on U.S. Supreme Court Library. Then click on Official Reports from the drop-down menu.

 

3. From the U.S. Supreme Court Library page select the Citation Navigator option below the Search bar.

 

4. Enter the case citation into the search box. Click on Get Citation.

 

5. You will be able to view the full text of the case online, by using the arrows to navigate to the next page.

 

6. Select the PDF version of the case, to download the full-text of the case.

 

Slip Opinions

Slip Opinions of United States Supreme Court decisions are available before they are published in the official law reports.
 

Slip opinion Example:

Apple Inc. v Pepper et al (9th Cir, No. 17-204 13 May 2019) slip op.

In this example the parties are Apple Inc. v Pepper et al. The jurisdiction was the 9th circuit of the United States Court of Appeal. The docket number is No. 17-204. The date of the decision was 13 May 2019. The abbreviation slip op means it is a Slip Opinion format.
 

Finding Slip Opinions on HeinOnline

1. Go to the HeinOnline database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. From the homepage, in Browse Databases by Category section under the search bar. Select Case Law and then click on U.S. Supreme Court Library. Then click on Official Reports from the drop-down menu.
3. From the Official Reports tab select United States Reports Slip Opinions.

 

4. Slip opinions can be searched by date or case name:

 

Opinions are available in PDF format.
 

Downloading a HeinOnline case

You can download the PDF, print or email using the options above the case.

 

 

Lexis Advance (US Research System) contains American federal and state law reports. It also has the official Shepardize® case citator tool.
 

Case Example:

Bush v. Gore, 531 US 98 (2000)

In this example the name of the case is Bush v. Gore. The year of the case is 2000. The authorised law report citation for this case is 531 US 98.
 

Finding US cases on Lexis Advance (US Research System)

1. Go to the Lexis Advance (US Research System) database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. If you know the law report citation to the case, you can type it in the main search box. If the citation has full-stops ensure that you add this to the citation in the search box. Click on the dropped down case name to view the case.

 

Finding US cases judicially considered on Lexis Advance (US Research System)

Once you have found a useful case it will be important to research for other cases that have judicially considered that case. It is also useful to research what cases or legislation that case has considered. Lexis Advance (US Research System) has a case citator function called Shepardize®.

1. Click on the case name in your results list to view the full case record.
2. Click on the Shepardize® information to the right of the case.

 

3.     This Shepardize® table provides information on the following:

   1. Appellate History lists whether the case has been appealed from lower courts.

   2. Citing Decisions lists subsequent cases which have judicially considered the case.

   3. Other Citing Sources lists secondary sources which have discussed the case.

   4. Table of Authorities lists any cases which this case considered.

 

Browsing US cases on Lexis Advance (US Research System)

To browse other Federal or State jurisdictions on Lexis Advance (US Research System), you will need to navigate to those sections of the database from the home page.

1. Go to the Lexis Advance (US Research System) database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. On the home page, Explore Content tabs, click on the tab for the Federal or State jurisdiction. Then select the link to the relevant source, e.g. All Federal Cases.

 

3. Enter search teams in the Advanced Search Box. Alternatively, you can enter the party names of the case into the Party Name field or enter the case citation into the Citation field.

4. If you are looking for a case on a specific subject, from the homepage. Select a topic from those listed under Practice Area.

 

Downloading US cases on Lexis Advance (US Research System)

1. Click on the case name in your results list to view the full case record.
2. From the full text of the case, check on the right-hand column if there is a PDF version of the case.

 

3. There are additional options in the top left to email, print and download a pdf version.

 

Thomson Reuters Westlaw contains Federal and State American cases. It is also the official publisher of the West’s Regional National Reporter law report series. This series compiles state appellate court decisions into regional law reports. For example, the North Eastern Reporter compiles state appellate court decisions from Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio.
 

Case Example:

Bush v. Gore, 531 US 98 (2000)

In this example the name of the case is Bush v. Gore. The year of the case is 2000. The authorised law report citation for this case is 531 US 98.
 

Finding US cases on Thomson Reuters Westlaw 

1. Go to Thomson Reuters Westlaw database homepage via the Library A-Z databases.
2. If you know the citation to the law report, you can enter the details in the man search bar. Click on the dropped down case name to view the case.

 

3. Alternatively, you can browse to Cases and use the Advanced Search page. On the Thomson Reuters Westlaw homepage under the All Content link select Cases.

 

4. From the Cases page select the Advanced option next to the Search bar.

 

5. Enter your case or party name in the Party Name (TI) field or the case citation in the Citation (CI) field. Then press enter or click on the search icon.

 

Browsing state US cases on Thomson Reuters Westlaw  

1. Go to Thomson Reuters Westlaw database homepage via the Library A-Z databases.
2. On the Thomson Reuters Westlaw homepage. Select a jurisdiction tab under Browse, e.g. State Materials.

 

3. Click on the link to the relevant state, and continue to browse, or use the Advanced Search link at the top right of the page.

 

Browsing US cases by Topic on Thomson Reuters Westlaw 

1. Go to Thomson Reuters Westlaw database homepage via the Library A-Z databases.
2. On the Thomson Reuters Westlaw homepage, under the All Content tab, select Topics & Key Numbers and then chose the relevant topic.

 

Finding US cases judicially considered on Thomson Reuters Westlaw

Once you have found a useful case it will be important to research for other cases that have judicially considered that case. It is also useful to research what cases or legislation that case has considered. Thomson Reuters Westlaw uses the KeyCite citator tool.

From the full-text Document page for the case, navigate to the Citing References tab and select Cases, to see what subsequent cases have considered this case. Or click on Table of Authorities to view what cases were considered in this case.

 

Downloading US cases on Thomson Reuters Westlaw

1. In the results screen, click on the case name to the case.
2. From the full text of the case, you can access a pdf version - this is as it appears in the left side of the case name.

 

3. There are also options to link or email on the top right of the screen.

 

Finding US cases on free law websites

Below is a list of useful free law websites for finding US cases:

• Supreme Court of the United States - The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in America and has an original jurisdiction for constitutional law matters. Opinions of this court and the official law report series U.S. Reports are freely accessible.
• Legal Information Institute (LII)  - independently-funded project of the Cornell Law School, which gathers, processes, and publishes public legal information. It is easier to locate cases through the drop-down menu, rather than using the search box.
• Cases and Codes (FindLaw) - contains a wealth of free, up-to-date, and easily understandable legal information and tools. Be aware, to find cases be sure to click on “Run a search for case summaries” hyperlink, as the search bar at the top of the site searches US Federal & State Codes.
• Justia US Law - provides open and free access to the law, and a platform for the legal community to share their knowledge.
• Court Listener - CourtListener is a free legal research website containing millions of legal opinions from federal and state courts. With CourtListener, lawyers, journalists, academics, and the public can research an important case, stay up to date with case law as it develops, or do deep analysis using our raw data.