Shepard's Citations place a court decision in perspective relevant to its current validity and importance as a precedent or reference in later cases or legal sources. Has this particular case been overturned or modified by a later decision? The American legal system operates on the basis of later court decisions utilizing all important, related, prior decisions (the doctrine of stare decisis). The more recent cases may supercede earlier findings and make the case you are following less important.
A second use of Shepard's Citations is to lead you to related cases and legal literature on the same topic or point of law. Every time your case is cited or mentioned in the text of another court decision this is added to the citation listing for that case. Periodical articles and essays in American Law Reports are also listed for your convenience. This total listing, kept up to date by paper supplements, is very similar to a bibliography, but much more sophisticated. |
| How to Use Shepard's |
Every federal court, all the national reporter series and each of the states has a separate version of Shepard's Citations. Each is arranged numerically according to the legal citation. Let's illustrate the type of information you might find for a particular case:
Branzeburg v. Hayes
92 S.Ct. 2646 |
- Determine which one of the various editions of Shepard's Citations you will use. In the above case, you would go to the United States Citations because of its legal citation. Start with the latest paperback supplement and work your way backwards.
- The organization will be by legal citation in volume number order. Locate the correct edition/series, find v.92 S.Ct. and then locate the page reference (2646). Do this for all volumes and supplements until you find two consecutive issues with no entries under the above sequence.
- To determine if you located all material relating to this case, the earliest volume with entries should show at least two parallel cases in parentheses (3 different editions because it is a U.S. Supreme Court case).
| EXAMPLE: |
(408US665)
(33Led2626) |
- The history of the case leading up to the Supreme Court decision is summarized next. The first court, other than the trial level, in which the same (s) case first appeared is followed by all other appeals levels.
| EXAMPLE: |
s92SC2686
s434F2d1081
s311Fs358
Ky
S461SW2d345 |
- Following these will be references to all other cases that cite or make reference to this case. These are arranged in descending order from federal down through state.
| EXAMPLE: |
c93SC1 593
d93SC9 769
j93SC3 786
h466F2d1 1090
f354FS3 217 |
Note: the raised numbers refer to the headnotes appearing before the case text in the West Reporter System.
State court decisions would follow if appropriate. |
- The abbreviations indicate how that particular case was used of referred to in the later case. The original decision is referred to as the cited case.
| a |
affirmed (the cited case was upheld) |
| c |
the cited case was criticized in a later case |
| d |
case different than cited case-essential, differences pointed out |
| e |
case provides explanation of cited case |
| f |
case followed cited case |
| h |
harmonized (apparent inconsistency explained) |
| j |
dissenting minority opinion |
| L |
limited by lower courts |
| o |
overruled (lower court decision overturned by the higher court) |
| q |
case questioned the decision of cited case |
- Articles in periodicals making reference to or citing this case will be listed last.
| EXAMPLES: |
7ALRFed260n
(American Law Reports, Federal)
70McL230
(Michigan Law Review, volume 70) |
| n - citation appears in annotation or essay |
- Copy the pertinent legal citations and locate the text of those cases or articles that are important to your research.
|