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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 are now also available in
electronic format on LexisNexis Academic (http://www.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/lex2.cgi )
. Many researchers prefer the electronic version. The Law Library
provides the general public with electronic access to
Shepards Citations from the LUMINA
terminals on the plaza level. For more information on using
Shepards Citations print and electronic products,
visit http://law.lexisnexis.com/shepards.
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