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Student Affairs - Finding Legal Resources

Finding Legal Information

Westlaw Campus Research 

  • Legal materials, including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and state governments
  • American Jurisprudence 2nd and American Law Reports
  • Case law from 1789 to present
  • Current statutes and regulations 

HeinOnline 

  • Supreme Court Cases
  • Code of Federal Regulations
  • Law Journals
  • Government and congressional documents

The two databases above contain Law Journals, as do the databases in the "Finding Articles" tab on the left.

Use Black's Law Dictionary to look up legal terms.

Code of Federal Regulations -  official, organized collection of general and permanent rules published by the executive departments and agencies of the U.S. Federal Government

 

Cases

This information is from: https://lscontent.westlaw.com/images/content/nationalreporter/west_map_reg_v6/reg_reporters_map.html

 

West Publishing began printing reporters in the late 1800s, and the collection became known as the West Reporter System. West has compiled the state appellate decisions (including intermediate appellate reports and state supreme courts) and printed them in various sets of Regional Reporters. The Regional Reporters are considered "unofficial."

Regional Reporter Names, Abbreviations & Coverage:

  • Atlantic Reporter (A. | A.2d) - Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, & the D.C. Municipal Court of Appeals
  • North Eastern Reporter (N.E. | N.E.2d | N.E.3d) - Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York & Ohio
  • North Western Reporter (N.W. | N.W.2d) - Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota & Wisconsin
  • Pacific Reporter (P. | P.2d | P.3d) - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington & Wyoming
  • South Eastern Reporter (S.E. | S.E.2d) - Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia & West Virginia
  • South Western Reporter (S.W. | S.W.2d | S.W.3d) - Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee & Texas
  • Southern Reporter (So. | So. 2d | So. 3d) - Alabama, Florida, Louisiana & Mississippi
  • State-specific Reporters Published by West:
  • New York Supplement (N.Y.S. | N.Y.S.2d)
  • California Reporter (Cal. Rptr. | Cal. Rptr. 2d | Cal. Rptr. 3d)

Federal Reporters

United States Supreme Court:

  • United States Reports (U.S.) - Official
  • Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.) - Unofficial (published by West)
  • United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition (L. Ed. | L. Ed. 2d) - Unofficial (published by Lexis)

United States Court of Appeals:

  • Federal Reporter (F. | F.2d | F.3d) - Official
    • Though this reporter is published by a commercial publisher (West) it is considered an "official" reporter because there is no other comprehensive source that publishes these decisions. 

United States District Courts:

  • Federal Supplement (F. Supp. | F. Supp. 2d) - Official
    • Though this reporter is published by a commercial publisher (West) it is considered an "official" reporter because there is no other comprehensive source that publishes these decisions. 
  • Federal Appendix (F. App'x) - Official
    • Though this reporter is published by a commercial publisher (West) it is considered an "official" reporter because there is no other comprehensive source that publishes these decisions. 
    • The Federal Appendix contains "unpublished" opinions. These are decisions that do not involve new legal principles or interpretations, and because of this, were previously excluded from the official reporters (thus the term "unpublished"). Unpublished decisions issued after January 1, 2007 may now be cited by attorneys if a court so permits. However, the persuasive value will vary according to the preference of the court before which the decision is presented.
  • Federal Rules Decisions (F.R.D.) - Official
    • Though this reporter is published by a commercial publisher (West) it is considered an "official" reporter because there is no other comprehensive source that publishes these decisions. 
    • This reporter publishes cases dealing specifically with the Federal Rules of Evidence, Civil Procedure, and Criminal Procedure (three different sets of procedural rules).

Headnotes

Headnotes are short, one- to two-sentence summaries of different aspects or issues of a case. They are found before the actual text of the decision begins. They are not part of the decision; they are an editorial enhancement provided by the legal research service.

Headnotes serve three main purposes:
  1. They identify the rules of law in the decision.
  2. They act as a "Table of Contents" to the case. Online, the hyperlinked number found in each headnote will bring you to the point in the decision where the discussion of that issue appears.
  3. They provide research references to locate additional case law. For this reason they are an excellent research tool.
    • The West topic and key number system can be used both online and in print research using West products.
    • Lexis topics/subjects can only be used in Lexis online.
    • Note that Lexis and West topics are not interchangeable. Even if the topic name is the same between the two services, the topics used in Lexis will not locate the same cases in Westlaw and vice versa.
Source of the language found in headnotes:
  • West headnotes are created by editors and may not always use the language of the case.
  • Important: Even though language from the case may be found in a headnote, never cite to a headnote. Only cite to the actual text of the decision.