Federal Case Law
Decisions of courts, or case law, establish precedent. Case law is one source of legal authority, along with statutes and regulations. Before you rely on a case, be sure to update case law to be sure another case has not overruled it.
To find relevant case law on a topic, start with a secondary source, and mine the footnotes for citations to other sources, including cases, on your topic, Once you have looked at secondary sources, you can also search case law.
- Case Law Citations ExplainedAfter you have located case citations using a secondary source, this guide can help you decipher the case citation.
- Federal Cases (Nexis Uni)
Select Cases, then Federal Cases. - Find case by citation (Nexis Uni)
Locate a case using a citation, case name or docket number.
- Case Law Access Project SearchSearch federal and state case law for free.
If a more recent case questions or even overrules the case you located, citators (Keycite in WestlawNext or Shepard's in Lexis Uni) will let you know. Citators also serve as a research tool - identifying additional cases on your topic.
- Performing Citation Searches (Nexis Uni)How to Shepardize a case and explanation of Shepard's Signal Indicators.
- Shepard's Signal IndicatorsExplains what Shepard's signal symbols mean.