Using Citators

Last Updated 8/2005. Links verified 4/2012.  Direct feedback on this page to lawlib@umn.edu.

Table of Contents

Introduction || Shepards Citators || KeyCite

 

Introduction

 

Citators are special tools used to verify if cases and statutes are still "good law." Before relying on any case or statute, its current status must be determined. For example, a case must be checked to be certain it has not been reversed by a higher court, or overruled by a subsequent case of the same court. Statutes must be checked to determine if they have been ruled unconstitutional, amended or repealed. Citators provide references to subsequent history and interpretation of cases, and lists of cases and legislation applying, interpreting or affecting statutes. They are also helpful for locating secondary materials, such as law journal articles, relevant to the case or statute being researched.

 

 

Shepards Citators

 

Shepard's Citations was the only citator available for almost a century.  Shepard's Citations series exist for federal and state cases and statutes. Constitutions, court rules, jury instructions and city charters and ordinances are included in the statute editions. Topical citators include bankruptcy, criminal justice, federal energy law, labor law, federal occupational safety and health, tax law, immigration law, labor arbitration, military law, products liability law, and the Uniform Commercial Code. The important step of verifying the validity of a case or statute is often called "Shepardizing."

USING SHEPARD'S CASE CITATIONS

  1. The first step is finding the appropriate citator for the case you are researching. The citators are either jurisdictional (by state, region, federal, or Supreme Court) or topical. For a state case, use the appropriate regional citator; for a federal case, a federal citator. The Shepard's citators are located on the Plaza level reference shelves of the Law Library. A complete set of Shepard's Citations will generally contain one or more bound volumes and a cumulative supplement. Check the "What Your Library Should Contain" section on the cover of the most recent supplement listing necessary volumes and supplements.

     

  2. Begin with the earliest volume containing your case and find the section with the reporter for your case (listed at the top of pages); for example, Northwestern Reporter. Case citations are arranged in numerical order, corresponding to the order of the citation in the reporter being "shepardized." These cited case references are listed by volume and page number in bold type. Each cited reference is followed by "parallel" references to the same case in a different reporter. Parallel references are enclosed in parentheses. Citing references follow immediately thereafter. If no references to a reported case appear, there are no parallel references and no citing references. Repeat this process in each subsequent volume which includes the case you are researching.

     

  3. The citators provide a letter abbreviation preceding a citing reference when that reference affects the case. If, for example, a higher court has reversed the cited case, an "r" precedes the citing reference. This abbreviation refers specifically to the history of the adjudication of the case, i.e., later appeals, reversals. Other abbreviations refer to the treatment of the case, i.e., how courts have evaluated the cited case as precedent for other cases. For example, if the letter "c" precedes the citing case, the cited case was criticized by other courts. If no letter precedes a citing reference, neither its history nor treatment was affected by the reference. The abbreviations used are included at the beginning of every volume and supplement of the set.

Shepard's Citations is available online via the Law School's LexisNexis subscription (access limited to Law School subscribers).  Shepard's Citations is also available to all U of M students facutly & staff via LexisNexis Academic (click on the blue "US Legal" tab and select Shepards Citations. The Law Library provides the general public with access to Shepards Citations from public workstations on the plaza level and 3rd floor.

 

KeyCite

 

KeyCite is another citator that is only available in electronic format on Westlaw.  It is available to law school students and faculty.  A downloadable guide on using KeyCite is available at http://lscontent.westlaw.com/images/banner/documentation/2009/CheckCitations09.pdf.

 

For video demonstrations of how to use Shepard's Citations for a case, see the Boston College Law Library website. (Although the example is a Massachusetts case, the techniques apply to any case.)