FINDING LEGAL RESOURCES – LOCATING CASES
Several items must be known in order to locate a specific
case. These are: the name of the case, location of the case, topic of the case,
and date of the opinion. The more information one knows about an individual
case, the easier it will be to locate. However, if various combinations of
items are known (i.e. name and location; name and topic; name and date;
location and topic; location and date; topic and date), then the search will
take several steps. If only a single item is known, then more research will be
needed.
Step One -
FINDING CITATIONS
If the name of a
specific case is known, then use the Table of Cases index of an appropriate
digest to find the citation. Example from the Decennial Digest: under Andrews v. Piedmont Air Lines you find 377 SE2d 127. From here you can locate the case
directly. However, when looking for cases on specific topics, use the
Descriptive-Word Indexes of the digest (Decennial, General or others) to find
the appropriate topics/sections under which cases are arranged. Example:
automobiles and seat belts SEE products liability 35 and 37; automobiles 6.
Step Two -
FINDING CASES
Once the topic and
section number under which a case is indexed is known, then turn to the
appropriate portion of the digest to find citations to specific cases. Cases in
each section are arranged alphabetically by court and state with the most
recent year listed first. The citation will refer to a federal, regional or
state reporter volume/page, a portion of the
Step Three -
CITING CASES
When citing legal
cases in a paper or bibliography, a proper citation lists the name of the case,
EACH reporter in which the
case is located, and the year the opinion was rendered. Example: Doe v.