Tour 5
Citators
This update replaces the tour in your book.
I.
Shepard’s Online
A.
Using Shepard’s Online
Suppose you are researching whether the public has the right to picket against abortion
in a privately-owned shopping mall. Suppose furthermore the only case on point you have
located is PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980), which held that a state’s
constitution can afford individuals more liberties than the federal Constitution.
In order to ascertain the current validity of PruneYard and obtain a complete listing of
cases as well as other references citing to PruneYard, you would need to Shepardize PruneYard
using LexisNexis’s Shepard’s service. Your first step is to sign on to the LexisAdvance research
system. Click on the “Shepard’s” tab. Type in PruneYard’s official citation, 447 U.S. 74. Choose
the “Shepard’s for Research” format. You can also utilize Shepard’s from the landing page by
entering the citation in the box provided, clicking “Search,” and clicking on “Shepardize.” 1
Review the citing authorities. First, what signal indicator is shown for the PruneYard
case? While indicators are helpful, always remember to check those references yourself.
Because a case often contains more than one legal issue, the signal indicator may be referring
to a different issue from yours. Thus, a case may have a red stop sign but still be good law for
your issue.
Note that over 2,700 references cite to PruneYard. These references are divided into
"Appellate History,” court decisions, secondary sources, and “Table of Authorities” found just
under the search tabs. Click on “Citing Decisions.” The analyses denoted in bold type in the
Shepard’s summary box on the left side of the page indicate the number of citing references
that have caused PruneYard to be given the yellow Shepard’s signal. If the list of citing
references was short, you could easily scroll through the Shepard’s list and access the case(s)
that you needed. However, it would be very time consuming to scroll through the sources
citing to PruneYard if you were looking for cases from a particular state or federal jurisdiction.
B.
Narrowing Your Results
Just under the Analysis section on the left side of the screen are various ways to narrow
your results. Choose to restrict your review of the PruneYard case to LexisNexis’ headnote 6 of
Another way to access Shepard’s is to click on the signal indicator found at the top of the screen when you pull up
a case, which will automatically place you in Shepard’s.
1
the Supreme Court Reporter and another restriction of your choice. Do you see how this
feature can make your review more focused and efficient?
Another method to narrow your results is to search for terms within the results. A
window is included on the left side of the page where you can type in your search terms in the
open field. Let’s try “shopping mall,” then click “OK.” Because you have over 2,000 citing
references, you will need to add an additional restriction. Click on “Cited in concurring
opinion.” Next, click the case Board of Regents v. Southworth. You are brought to the first
time “shopping mall” is used in the document. If “shopping mall” is used more than once, as in
this case, you can click the forward arrow key in the top right corner of the screen following the
words “All Terms.” This click will jump you to the next time the search term is used in the
document.
Another restriction that is quite helpful is to search for opinions only in a specific
jurisdiction. If, for instance, you were searching only for Missouri state court treatment of
PruneYard, you could simply scroll down to the “State Courts” section and click on “Missouri.”
LexisAdvance automatically forwards you to the Missouri state court cases in the Shepard’s
report. Click on the fourth case under the “Missouri Court of Appeals” section: Kugler v. Ryan.
By clicking on Kugler, LexisAdvance forwards you to the exact location in the Kugler case that
cites to PruneYard.
If you were only interested in the cases that have led to PruneYard being given the
yellow Shepard’s signal, you could click on the bolded “Caution” icon in the Shepard’s summary
box. LexisAdvance will take you to a list of cases that have possibly interpreted PruneYard
negatively.
C.
Table of Authorities (TOA)
Staying with the PruneYard case on Shepard’s, return to the original page of the
Shepard’s result. Click on the “Table of Authorities” link directly under the search tabs. Do any
of these cases indicate a hidden weakness in PruneYard? Every red or yellow signal indicates
that at this stage the authority used in PruneYard has been questioned. This alone does not
mean the case is no longer good law. It does mean that you will need to review these cited
cases to determine the effect on PruneYard.
D.
Shepardizing Statutes
Type in the citation to a particular subsection of the Fair Labor Standards Act in the
LexisAdvance search box: “29 U.S.C. 213(a)(3).” Then click the “Shepardize®” button towards
the top of the page. Note that although you entered a subsection, Shepard’s sends a citing
reference list for the entire code section. Just like Shepard’s for case opinions, Shepard’s for
statutes includes features that assist us in narrowing our results. For example, the summary
box for a statute delineates the courts’ treatment of the statute. For 29 U.S.C. 213, the citing
references include “Positive,” and “Neutral,” analyses, as well as just “Cited by.” Under the
search tab, the link “Legislation History” lists the history of the statute with all its amendments.
How many citing references to this particular section of title 29 are given? The total is
listed at the top of the screen. How many of these citing references are citations to cases?
That total is listed in parentheses immediately after the history where the citing references
begin. Keep track of these numbers for your tour check-up. Another feature available in
Shepard’s for statutes is the “Narrow by” feature. Limit the citing references to decisions by the
Eighth Circuit. How many citing references are from the Eighth Circuit? Is that number feasible
to look at all the references? Probably not. Add a date restriction of 2010 to 2011. Click “OK.”
What analyses do all these citing references have? Is this an analysis indicator that is likely to
give us an in-depth discussion of the statute? A “Cited by” analysis indicates that the reference
merely cited your authority. Any discussion of the authority would have a difference analysis
indicator such as “Followed,” “Construes,” or “Interprets.” As such these discussions will
probably not tell you much. You have “focused” too far. Finding the balance between
retrieving the relevant authority you need with the number of references to review becomes a
balancing act. Each research problem will be different.
E.
Shepardizing Other Sources
Using these same features, you can also Shepardize other cited authorities such as
administrative regulations as they appear in the CFR, law review articles, and more.
II.
KeyCite
Sign on to WestlawNext. Let’s use a Kansas case regarding delivery of a deed to a third
person, Libel v. Corcoran. Type the Libel regional reporter cite, 452 P.2d 832, in the search box.
Notice that the summary of the KeyCite results is displayed across the top of the screen. If no
citing references exist for a given summary, the link is grayed and inaccessible.
A.
KeyCite History
KeyCite provides three kinds of history for cases—direct history, indirect history, and
related references. KeyCite will display direct history first and then will display negative indirect
history and related references.
B.
Citing References
Click on the tab for “Citing References.” The default order of references is by the depth
of treatment of the citing references from highest to lowest. The depth of treatment is
indicated by the use of squares. Notice the depth of treatment squares for each citing
reference. These indicate how much a citing reference discusses the cited authority, ranging
from four squares for an extensive discussion to one square for a mere mention. Within each
depth of treatment group, citing references are ordered by jurisdiction. For the Libel case, what
depth of treatment groups are used? You should find two citing authorities with three squares,
several citing authorities with two squares, and two authorities with one square. You can
reorder the citing references in reverse order of depth of treatment or by date.
Just as with Shepard’s, you can limit the citing references by headnote, jurisdiction, level
of court, depth of treatment, date and document type. First, a researcher can enter specific
text in the search box on the left of the screen. To access additional filters, click on the type of
citing references. Click “Cases.” The filters appropriate to the type of citing reference are
automatically displayed. To choose a headnote filter, click on “Specify” next to “Deeds.” Click
on the desired headnote number. Choose to restrict your review of the Libel case to headnote
6 (by checking the box below headnote 6), and click “OK.” Lastly, click on “Apply Filters.” You
cancel your restrictions by clicking the “Undo Filters” button. Do that now.
Another feature of KeyCite is illustrated by the green quotation marks next to the Heeb
and Smith cases. Click on the Smith case. Then click on the arrow next to “Search term.” You
will be taken directly to every reference to the Libel case. The green quotation marks indicate
that Libel, your cited case, was quoted in the Smith case.
C.
KeyCiting Statutes and Other Resources
You can also employ the KeyCite feature when verifying the treatment of a statute or
trying to locate citing references to other types of authority. Type in the Fair Labor Standards
Act in the search box: “29 U.S.C. 213.” WestlawNext will immediately display the statute with
the tabs across the top summarizing the KeyCite results. Notice that WestlawNext also displays
whether any proposed legislation may impact the statute.
III.
Print-Based Shepard’s
Many firms and bar association libraries have stopped purchasing print Shepard’s for
every reporter and statutory code. Instead, they rely on Shepard’s Online or KeyCite as their
citator. Most law libraries typically maintain only their state Shepard’s in print. While most of
the time you will be using an online source, you may need to use print-based Shepard’s for
those situations when online sources are not available. When that happens, the law librarian is
a good resource to use to learn how to use print-based Shepard’s.
IV.
Summary
Citators play a vital role in every research plan. You will use citators as a finding tool and
as a source to update and verify the current validity of your research source. Using a citator to
verify your authority should become automatic for you. That is, before you rely on any
research, whether in advising a client, drafting a contract, or submitting an appellate brief to a
court, checking a citator should always play an integral part of your research.
Homework correction:
Use WestlawNext and LexisAdvance wherever the homework indicates Westlaw or
LexisNexis. Questions 19 and 20 should be answered in LexisAdvance, not in
WestlawNext.