Cases: KeyCite History

Use KeyCite History to Determine Whether Your Case Is Good Law

KeyCite History includes

• Direct History of the case, which traces your case through the appeals court(s)

• Negative Indirect History, which includes cases outside the direct history of the case that might have a negative impact on the validity of your case

Status flags give you an instant indication of whether your case is good law

Red Flag - Your case is no longer good law for at least one of the points it contains.

Yellow Flag - Your case has had some negative history but hasn’t been reversed or overruled.

Blue H - Your case has some history.

Green C - Your case has citing references but no direct or negative indirect history.

KeyCite for Cases

• In the Direct History of the case, the case has been

– reversed by a higher court

– vacated by a higher court

– remanded by a higher court to lower court for reconsideration

OR

• In the Negative Indirect History, the case has been

– overruled by another court at the same level in the same jurisdiction

– superseded by statute as stated in a case

A red flag means

– disagrees without overruling

– has factual distinctions

– although negative it is from another jurisdiction

– in some other way expresses dissatisfaction with the case without invalidating the case

A yellow flag means another case in the Negative

Indirect History of the case

A KeyCite display provides links to both the Direct History and the Negative Indirect History of the case. You can view Direct History in a textual display or Graphical View, which links only to the direct history in flow-chart format.

Direct History • Traces a case as it moves through the appeals courts

• Integrates the full litigation history into a single display

• This result shows how the Floyd v. Waiters case moved through the appeals process

This is the Direct History in the graphical view. Bands of color represent levels of the court. Arrows indicate the movement of the litigation through the levels of the court.

• Lists cases outside the direct appellate line that may have a negative impact of the validity of your case

• Can be so strong that it overrules or otherwise invalidates your case

• Can have little affect because it is such mild disagreement or because it is from outside the jurisdiction.

Negative Indirect History

QuestionWhich of the following answers is true?

Negative Indirect History

1. Can have no effect on the validity of a case

2. Always invalidates a case

3. Does not necessarily invalidate the case

4. All of the above

Question

Which of the following answers is true?

Negative Indirect History

1. Can have no effect on the validity of a case

2. Always invalidates a case

3. Does not necessarily invalidate the case

4. All of the above