Shepard's Citations

Definition

Shepard's Citations is a legal research tool that provides a comprehensive method for tracking the history and treatment of court cases, statutes, and regulations. It allows legal professionals to verify the current status of a legal authority, ensuring it is still good law and identifying subsequent cases that have cited it. This helps in understanding how cases have been interpreted or applied over time, making it crucial for updating case law.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Shepard's Citations originated in the 1870s and has evolved from print volumes to an online platform, making it more accessible for legal research.
2. The tool uses a color-coded system to indicate the status of a case: red means negative treatment, yellow means caution, and green indicates positive treatment.
3. Users can access Shepard's Citations through LexisNexis and use it to find out how many times a case has been cited and what subsequent courts have said about it.
4. Shepardizing is essential for ensuring that legal arguments are based on valid and current authorities, as reliance on outdated or overruled cases can undermine a case.
5. In addition to cases, Shepard's Citations can also be used for statutes and regulations, helping researchers ensure that all aspects of the law are current and properly supported.

Review Questions

• How does Shepard's Citations help legal professionals in evaluating the status of case law?
  • Shepard's Citations assists legal professionals by providing detailed tracking of case history and treatment. It shows how often a case has been cited by other courts and whether those citations reflect positive, negative, or neutral treatment. This information is vital for lawyers to ascertain if a case is still valid or if it has been overturned or criticized in subsequent rulings, ensuring they base their arguments on reliable legal precedents.
• Discuss the advantages of using Shepard's Citations compared to traditional methods of updating case law.
  • Using Shepard's Citations offers numerous advantages over traditional methods like manually checking case histories in books. The online platform provides real-time updates and immediate access to a vast database of cases, making research faster and more efficient. Additionally, the color-coded system quickly conveys the status of a case at a glance, whereas traditional methods could require extensive time sifting through multiple resources to determine if a case was still applicable. This modern approach greatly enhances the accuracy and reliability of legal research.
• Evaluate the impact of Shepard's Citations on legal research practices and outcomes in contemporary law.
  • Shepard's Citations has fundamentally transformed legal research practices by increasing efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility. It allows attorneys and researchers to quickly verify the current status of law, leading to more informed legal strategies. As a result, reliance on outdated or overruled cases is significantly reduced, which helps improve the quality of legal arguments presented in court. This tool not only streamlines the research process but also enhances the overall integrity of the judicial system by ensuring that legal practitioners work with up-to-date authorities.

Related terms

Legal Precedent: Legal precedent refers to a legal case that establishes a principle or rule that can be followed in future cases, creating a basis for legal decisions.

KeyCite: KeyCite is a citation service offered by Westlaw that serves a similar purpose as Shepard's Citations, allowing users to check the validity of legal authorities and track their subsequent history.

Citing References: Citing references are documents or cases that reference a particular legal authority, indicating how that authority has been treated in various jurisdictions or contexts.