Law 11Citators

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Citation Services

o Citation services indicate how and when a particular legal resource has been citedo Indicate the type of treatment a legal

resource has receivedo Prior and subsequent historyo Citations to other caseso Statute citators indicate subsequent

legislative action

o Doctrine of stare decisis (precedent) makes citations important

o Ensure that authorities relied upon are still good law

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Shepard’s Citations

o Shepard’s Citations includes:o Case citationso Constitutionso Statuteso Administrative Rules and

Regulationso Court Ruleso Law Review Articles

o Published by jurisdiction, reporter, authority, subject matter

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Features of Shepard’s

o List of abbreviations and/or symbols that describe the treatment of a cited source

o Parallel citations appear in parentheseso Prior and subsequent history references

follow (using abbreviations or symbols)o Citing references are then arranged by

jurisdiction or sourceo Online Shepard’s provides additional

informationo Prior and subsequent history noted by

phrases instead of abbreviations or symbols

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Updating Shepard’s

o Online Shepard’s is always updatedo Contains current information as

the authorities published in Lexis

o For paper versions of Shepard’s o Have to check additional volumes

and paperbound supplementso Each paperbound supplement has

to be checked to thoroughly update a citation

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Shepard’s Case Citators

o History Notationso Affirmed, Reversed, Modified, etc.

o Treatment Notationso Followed, Criticized, Explained, etc.

o The notations may only related to one point of law; the rest of the case can still be good lawo Look at superscript notations within the

citing reference: 838FS211019o The case at 838 F. Supp. 1019 references

the source for headnote 21 of the cited case

o Important to read cases included as citing references instead of simply relying on a Shepard’s notation

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Westlaw KeyCite

o Online version for Westlawo Provides citation services for all

federal and state cases, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, patents, certain materials from selected federal administrative agencies, law review articles

o Updated as soon as the material is available in the Westlaw databases

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KeyCite for Cases

o Helps locate citing references in reported and unreported federal and state cases, articles in law reviews, ALRs, Am.Jur. 2d, and treatises

o Gives prior and subsequent history citations

o Gives citations to holdings that have negative indirect holdings

o Citations are grouped into negative cases, positive cases and secondary sources

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KeyCite

o Cases will have a symbol to the left of the citationo Red Flag – no longer good law for

at least one point of lawo Yellow Flag – negative treatmento H – relevant historyo C – case has been cited, but no

direct or negative indirect history

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Advantages of Citators

o Why Shepardize/KeyCite early in the research process?

o What are the risks of waiting?o How can Shepard’s/KeyCite

serve as research tools?o Duty to Shepardize/KeyCite

primary authorityo Print vs. online