Using Free Shepard’s and
KeyCite in the Law Library
Presented by the Alameda
County Law Library
July 20, 2010
Free at the Law Library!
The Alameda County Law Library provides
library users free access to subscription
citation verification services Shepard’s and
Keycite on patron terminals at the Main
and Branch libraries.
Reference Librarians are always available
at both locations to provide one-on-one
assistance in the effective use of these
services.
What is Shepardizing?
Accessed through the LexisNexis platform, Shepard’s Citation
Service is a citation verification tool that allows researchers to
“update” a legal authority by generating a Shepard’s Report.
Shepard’s is most commonly used to determine the
continuing precedential value of cases.
What is Shepardizing? cont’d.
A Shepard’s Report presents both the direct history of the
authority you are updating and a complete list of citing
references, including:
Primary sources: Cases, statutes, and regulations that cite to the
authority, potentially affecting its precedential or authoritative value.
Secondary sources: A selective list that cite to your authority, offering
discussion of its significance.
Based on favorable or unfavorable treatment by later
authorities, editors at LexisNexis assign primary authorities a
“Shepard’s signal,” included in the Shepard’s Report to
quickly indicate to researchers the current strength of the
authority, as perceived by Lexis editors.
What Can Be Shepardized?
Case law
Statutory citations
Regulations
Constitutional provisions
Court rules
Agency decisions
Restatements
Law review articles
U.S. patents
Why Is Shepardizing Useful?
Shepardizing serves two major functions,
allowing attorneys and litigants:
To validate legal authorities and comply with
the duty to present “good law” to the court.
To identify additional, related authorities that
support their argument.
Duty to Present “Good Law”
It is an attorney’s professional responsibility to present
“good law” to the court, supporting their arguments in
motions and briefs with citations to valid legal authorities.
Rule 5-200(D) of the California Rules of Professional
Conduct states:
“[An attorney] Shall not, knowing its invalidity, cite as authority a
decision that has been overruled or a statute that has been repealed or
declared unconstitutional;”
Citing to authorities that are no longer considered good law
can result in an attorney being embarrassed or
reprimanded by the judge.
Shepardizing is a critical step in the research process.
Solution? = Shepardize!
Attorneys can meet this obligation to the court by
updating their authorities with a citation verification
service like Shepard’s.
Information contained in a Shepard’s Report
enables an attorney or litigant to:
Determine if the authority has received positive or
negative treatment from citing authorities, strengthening
or weakening its precedential or authoritative value.
Draw conclusions about the continuing precedential,
persuasive or authoritative value of the authority for the
issue they are researching.
Secondary Function:
Identify Additional Authorities
Listing all primary and secondary sources that have
cited to your authority, a Shepard’s Report also
serves as an excellent point of departure for further
research.
Identify and review additional cases with similar issues.
Review secondary sources, including Restatements,
treatises, law reviews, and court documents that have
analyzed or interpreted your authority.
Advantages of Shepard’s Online Interface
Faster, less cumbersome to use than the
print version
Hyperlink quickly to the full-text of the
original citation and any citing references
Customize your report
Most up-to-date content available
Multiple content delivery options
Before You Shepardize:
Identify the Proper Citation Format
To Shepardize a citation, it must be entered in a format
recognized by Shepard’s. Users can look up the proper citation
format of a primary or secondary source by clicking on the
“Citation Formats” hyperlink next to the search box. This will open
the “Citation Format Assistant” in which you will enter the name of
the publication to retrieve the recognized citation format.
Let’s Shepardize!: Shepardizing a Case
Select the “Shepard’s for Research” option and click
“Check” to generate a Shepard’s Report that
includes the direct history of the case along with all
citing references.
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Shepard’s Report at a Glance
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Elements of a Shepard’s Report
Shepard’s Summary
Prior History
Citing Decisions
Other Sources
Shepard’s Summary
Shepard’s Summary provides a snapshot of the Shepard’s Report:
-Shepard’s signal
-Hyperlinks to Citing References, both:
- Citing cases: organized by analysis type and treatment notation
- Other sources: law reviews, secondary sources, statutes,
treatises, court documents that reference your case.
-Hyperlinks to LexisNexis Headnotes
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Shepard’s Signals Demystified
What do the Shepard’s signals mean?
Assigned by Lexis editors after reviewing positive, neutral
and/or negative treatment of your citation by later authorities,
Shepard’s signals are meant to provide an overall indication
of the strength of your authority.
Serve as a “First Alert” to the researcher concerning the
possible precedential value of the authority.
Analytical Treatment Notations
Assigned by Lexis editors to citing cases that may affect the precedential
value of the Shepardized case, indicating treatment by the citing authority.
Affirmed: On appeal, reconsideration, or rehearing, the citing case affirms or
adheres to the reasoning employed by the cited case.
Followed: The citing case relies on the cited case as controlling or persuasive
authority.
Explained: The citing case explains or interprets the reasoning or holding of
the cited case.
Distinguished: The citing case differs from the cited case in either fact
situation or legal issue.
Criticized: The citing case criticizes some aspect of the cited case, although
the citing court may not have the authority to affect its precedential value.
Questioned: The citing case questions the continuing validity or precedential
value of the cited case because of intervening circumstances, such as judicial
or legislative overruling.
Overruled: The citing case overrules all or part of the cited case.
Reversed: On appeal, reconsideration, or rehearing, the citing case reverses
the cited case.
Prior History
Includes both the prior case history and
subsequent appellate history of the case you
have Shepardized (direct history).
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Citing Decisions
Organized by court, then by date, with the most recent
decisions from the highest court displayed first.
Full citations of citing decisions are given along with
pinpoint citations to the specific page(s) in each citing
decision where the Shepardized case is referenced.
Analytical treatment notations indicate treatment by
citing cases.
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
CAUTION: Review Citing Cases
Though the Shepard’s signals and analytical treatment
notations provide some indication of the precedential
value of a case or other authority, researchers must not
rely on these editorial treatments as the “final word”
concerning the continuing validity of a case.
• ex: a case flagged overruled may only be overruled for
a single point of law.
It is imperative that the researcher carefully review any
citing cases that indicate negative treatment and reach
their own conclusion about the precedential value of the
case for the legal issue they are researching.
Use pinpoint citations to quickly locate the specific
passage(s) where citing decisions make reference to
your case.
Citing Non-Case Authorities
Review non-case authorities that have cited your case,
including annotated statutes, regulations, and agency decisions.
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Citing Secondary Sources
Review secondary sources, including law reviews,
Restatements, treatises and court documents that have
discussed or interpreted your case.
•How have legal scholars regarded your case?
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Customize Your Report
Depending on how influential or controversial your case has
been, hundreds of even thousands of citing references may
appear in your Shepard’s Report.
Attempting to review all the cases and secondary sources that have
cited to your case, including those from other jurisdictions or those
that discuss a different point of law than you are researching, is
inefficient, and most likely unnecessary.
Shepard’s allows users to manipulate their results’ list by placing
limits on the report, reducing the total number of citing references
displayed and presenting results in a way that is more meaningful
and useful to the researcher.
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Customize Your Report cont’d.
Generate a targeted results’ list by limiting your
Shepard’s Report by:
Treatment
FOCUS Feature
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Treatment
Limiting by treatment allows you to restrict results by
analysis type.
– All Neg: Displays citing cases that have
overruled, reversed, questioned, distinguished,
criticized, or limited the case you are
Shepardizing for at least one point of law.
– All Pos: Displays citing cases that have affirmed
or followed the case’s legal reasoning.
FOCUS Feature
Use the FOCUS feature to narrow your results by:
Jurisdiction: display only those citing references from one or
more specific jurisdictions
Search Terms: display only those citing references in which a
particular term or phrase appears
Date Range: display only those citing references published
during a specific date range
Headnote(s): display only those citing references that contain
a specific headnote(s).
– Allows you to retrieve citing cases that include discussion of a specific legal
issue/application of a particular point of law.
Focus Feature cont’d.
Select limits.
Click “Apply” to generate a FOCUSed report.
FOCUSing by Headnote
Zero in on relevant cases quickly by limiting your
Shepard’s report to cases that contain a specific
headnote.
A headnote is a brief summary of a particular point of law
that is added to the text of a court decision to aid readers
in interpreting the highlights of the opinion.
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Shepard’s Table of Authorties (TOA)
Lists the cases relied on by the case you Shepardized, organized by
jurisdiction.
– Use this feature to discover hidden weaknesses in your case by
reviewing the strength of its foundation.
View Full-Text of Authorities
View the full-text of the authority you Shepardized or
any citing reference in your Shepard’s Report by
clicking on the hyperlinked citation.
Select the documents for print or email delivery, or
save to a flash drive.
Smith v. Lewis 13 Cal. 3d. 349 (1975)
Shepardizing Statutes
Shepardizing a code section yields information
about its legislative history and citing
references, including citing decisions and
secondary sources.
Elements of a Shepard’s Report for Statutes:
Shepard’s Summary
History
Citing Decisions
Other Sources
Let’s Shepardize!
29 U.S.C. sec. 2612
Shepard’s Summary for Statutes
Shepard’s Signal Indicator: Assigned by Lexis editors based on
negative, positive, or neutral treatment by citing authorities.
Pending Legislation: Signal alerting that a bill pending in the
legislature proposes to amend, repeal, or enact a change to the code
section you have Shepardized.
Hyperlinks to Citing References, both:
- Citing cases: organized by analysis type and treatment notation
- Other sources: law reviews, secondary sources, statutes,
treatises, court documents that reference the code section
29 U.S.C. sec. 2612
History
The report’s “History” section provides derivation
information, listing statutes that have added, amended,
superseded or repealed the Shepardized code section.
Click the hyperlinks to read the full-text of the public law or
Statutes at Large citation.
The report’s “Pending Legislation” section lists bills
pending in the legislature that propose to amend, repeal,
or enact a change to the code section you are
Shepardizing
Citing Decisions
Review citing decisions to determine how your code section has
been applied or interpreted by the courts, possibly affecting its
validity.
Organized by court, then by date, full case citations are given along
with pinpoint citations to where the citing decision references the
Shepardized code section.
Analytical treatment notations for statutes indicate treatment by
citing cases:
–
–
–
Warning Analyses: Unconstitutional, Invalid, Void
Positive Analyses: Constitutional, Valid, Followed
Neutral Analyses: Construes, Interprets, Questionable Precedent,
Dissenting Opinion
29 U.S.C. sec. 2612
Other Sources
Review non-case authorities that have cited your code section,
including other statutes, regulations, court documents, and law
review articles.
Determine how agencies have implemented the statute by
reviewing citing regulations.
29 U.S.C. sec. 2612
Content Delivery Options
From law library computers, three content delivery
options are available for the Shepard’s Report, the
full-text of your original citation, and any citing
references included in the report:
Print Delivery (.25 cents/page)
Email Delivery (free of charge)
Save to a Flash Drive (free of charge)
Refer to handouts for step-by-step instructions for using each
delivery method.
HAVE FUN SHEPARDIZING!
ASK REFERENCE LIBRARIANS
FOR ASSISTANCE!
Print Delivery
1. Select the printer icon
2. Select the documents you want to print under the heading
“Document Range.”
3. Generate a PDF document by selecting “Adobe PDF for Attached
Printer” and hitting the “Print” button.
Print Delivery cont’d.
3. On the PDF document that is generated, select the white printer
button in the upper left-hand corner to bring up the Print Dialog Box.
4. When the Print Dialog Box appears, click “Ok” to send the entire
document to the library printer, or specify the page range you would
like to print. Retrieve print-outs at the Reference Desk.
Remember, printing costs .25 cents/page!
Email Delivery
1. Select the letter icon to bring up the email dialog box.
2. Type your email address in the “Email Documents” dialog box and select the
documents you want to email to yourself and the format in which you want
them sent (Word, PDF, Word Perfect, txt, rtf).
3. Select the “Send” button to email the documents in the format specified.
Save to Flash/USB Drive
1. Insert flash drive into USB port. (Flash drive cannot contain executables).
2. Select the diskette icon to bring up the “Download Documents” dialog
box.
3. Select the documents you want to save and the format in which you want
to download them (Word, PDF, Word Perfect, txt, rtf).
4. Select “Download” to generate the documents in the format specified.
Save to Flash/USB Drive cont’d.
4. The “Ready to Download” box will appear.
5. Click on hyperlinked citation to open the
document in the format specified.
6. On the PDF document that is generated, select
the diskette icon to save the document.
Save to Flash/USB Drive cont’d.
7. In the “Save a Copy” dialog box, double click on “usb drive.”
8. Enter a document name in the File Name field and click “Save.”