Finding a Case in LexisNexis
OSU's primary access to case law is the LexisNexis Academic database. It includes a comprehensive Legal Research section that allows you to access full text of court cases by topic or by case name and number, as well as providing access to law journals and reviews.
Click on the Legal tab to get access.
Here you can search Law Reviews (the default search) as a guide to finding important legal cases or law related to a particular legal topic. You can also choose to search:
Federal & State Cases This allows the user to search for decisions from all federal court level cases (Ex: Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Tax Courts, Customs Courts, Military Courts, etc.) and/or to search state court and appellate court decisions by keyword, case name, citation number, or by name of the judge, counsel or firm.
Shepard'sTM Citations: "Shepardizing" is a way to make sure that a case has not been overturned. It ensures that a case is still "good law." Shepardizing also allows the user to find additional cases that stand for the same legal principle as the original case.
You may also search for tax law, Canadian court cases or legislation, International law, and patent law.
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LexisNexis Academic
Comprehensive index to newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV news program transcripts, legal material and other reference sources. Primarily focused on news, business and legal topics.
Includes full-text.
Concurrent Users: unlimited
Finding a Case Online
Internet sources for Case Law include:
Supreme Court decisions from 1990-present as well as some Circuit Court and some States' Supreme Court decisions are available on the Internet. Click on the Law on the Internet tab to see a list of links to these decisions.
Oregon Case Law: State of Oregon Law Library Digital Collection "contains unofficial copies of Oregon Supreme Court (SC) and Court of Appeals (COA) Briefs and Opinions. Briefs coverage begins approximately May 2007, continuing to the present. (COA Briefs start with 212orapp488; SC Briefs start with 342or1). The long-term goal is to include Briefs back to the mid 1980's. Opinions coverage is 1998 to present." Recently added are
Oregon Voters' Pamphlets for Marion County elections.
Overview
The term Case law refers to the legal interpretations contained in the decisions of courts as applied to a specific set of facts.
For a fine tutorial on doing legal research, visit the University of California-Irvine Libraries web page. Cases and Digests is found here .
Law Reporters
Case Law Reporters in the Valley Library
While case decisions are widely available online (such as in LexisNexis Academic), the print citation is still used to identify a particular case. You can then enter this into LexisNexis to retrieve the text of the decision.
One way to find the full citation is to use a printed book called a reporter. Reporters usually contain reports from appellate courts in specific geographic areas and specific jurisdictions. There are separate reporters for state courts and federal courts, and, as the legal field increases in complexity and specialization, there are a number of speciality or subject reporters.
United States Reports (U.S.) - Supreme Court Decisions (Official) KF101 .U58 or LexisNexis
OSU has: vol. 284-date (1931-date)
Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.) - Supreme Court Decisions (Unofficial) KF101 .A322 or LexisNexis
OSU has: vol. 1-120 (1809-1999)
Federal Cases (Fed.Cas.) - Important Federal Cases,
1789-1880 K .F295
OSU has: vol. 1-30
Federal Reporter, 1st-3rd series (F., F2d, F3d) - U.S. Courts of Appeals KF105 .F432 or LexisNexis
OSU has: vol. 1-222 (3rd series) (1880-2000)
Federal Supplement (F. Supp.) - U.S. District Courts, etc. KF120 .F42 or LexisNexis
OSU has: vol. 1-108 (1932-2000)
Oregon Reports (Or.) - Oregon Supreme Court (official) K .O78 or LexisNexis
OSU has: vol. 1-231 (1853-1964)
Pacific Reporter, 1st-3rd series (P., P2d, P3d) - Oregon Supreme Court (unofficial) KF132 .P2 P32 or LexisNexis
OSU has: vol. 1-46 (3rd series) (1884-1999)
Other state reporters exist and you may sometimes see abbreviations for them. The best place to look for those citations is in LexisNexis Academic under the Legal tab.
Last Update: 05 Sep 15:05 | Tagged with: law government environmental law
