Fall 2010 Shepard’s Training
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Enter the
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Research System
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Retrieve a case brief, opinion, statute, law review, or other document by citation, or define a term in Ballentine’s legal dictionary.
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I.
II.
Retrieving a Shepard’s report: 3 ways
A.
Type the cite in the Citation toolbar at the top of the screen, select the Shepard’s
radio button, click Go (434 U.S. 192)
B.
From within a document or results list, click the Shepard’s symbol OR from within
a document, click the blue Shepardize link.
Report Organization
A.
B.
C.
D.
III.
Symbol: Identifies at a glance whether the citation is still good law.
Summary: Provides a snap-shot of the citing references, organized by source,
analysis, and headnote reference
Immediately beneath the Summary, any prior or subsequent History appears
Beneath the History, Citing References are listed in the following order:
1.
Case Law: Binding first, then persuasive; within the each court, the most
recent cases are listed first
2.
Statutes
3.
Secondary Sources: Law Reviews, Treatises, etc.
4.
Court Documents: Pleadings, Motions, Briefs, etc.
The Shepard’s Symbols
A.
The Shepard’s Symbol quickly identifies whether the case accurately states the
current law, or if it has been invalidated on one or more point.
B.
From within a Shepard’s report, click the Legend link in the bottom right corner for
a thorough description of the meaning of each symbol.
C.
Shepard’s provides the widest range of symbols, providing the most precise at-aglance information regarding the treatment of the Shepardized source.
D.
Symbol: Distinguishes between cases that have been directly/expressly
overruled, and those whose validity has been called into question. For example,
Mahoney v. Trabucco, 738 F.2d 35.
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E.
Symbol: Only Shepard’s distinguishes between positive and neutral analysis by
assigning a
symbol to cases that have received expressly positive analysis.
F.
If your case has been assigned a
or
you will need to further review the
Shepard’s report to determine if it can still be cited in support of your issue. If the
case is assigned any other symbol, it is good law.
Warning: Negative treatment is indicated
The red Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's® Citations Service contain strong
negative history or treatment of your case (for example, overruled by or reversed).
Warning: Negative treatment is indicated for statute
The red exclamation point Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's® Citations Service
contain strong negative treatment of the Shepardized™ section (for example, the section may have been found
to be unconstitutional or void).
Questioned: Validity questioned by citing refs.
The orange Shepard's Signal indicates that the citing references in the Shepard's® Citations Service contain
treatment that questions the continuing validity or precedential value of your case because of intervening
circumstances, including judicial or legislative overruling.
Caution: Possible negative treatment indicated
The yellow Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain history or
treatment that may have a significant negative impact on your case (for example, limited or criticized by).
Positive treatment indicated
The green Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain history or
treatment that has a positive impact on your case (for example, affirmed or followed by).
Citing refs. with analysis available
The blue "A" Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain
treatment of your case that is neither positive nor negative (for example, explained).
IV.
The Shepard’s Summary: Provides a snap-shot of the citing references, organized by
source, analysis, and headnote reference.
A.
B.
C.
The number in parenthesis identifies the number of citing references of that type
found in the Shepard’s report.
Click a link to jump to the first of the references of that type.
If your case is assigned a
or , the easiest way to identify whether it remains
“good law” for your issue is to click the blue analysis link that is associated with the
symbol in the Summary and review those cases.
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D.
V.
If there is more than one case that analyzed the Shepardized case in a particular
way, you can access the other decisions by clicking the black Term Browse arrow
in the bottom right corner.
Narrowing a Shepard’s report
A.
Use the blue All Neg and All Pos links to keep only negative or only positive citing
references, and exclude all others, from your report
B.
Click the FOCUS – Restrict By link to tailor the report to your topical, analytical,
and jurisdictional needs from a single template.
1.
2.
Narrow by Subject/Topic:
a.
Type a terms and connectors search into the Focus Terms box –
only citing references that satisfy the search term/phrase will remain
in the report; and/or
b.
Place checks to the left of the headnote numbers that correspond to
the issues you are researching, to keep only the cases that cited the
Shepardized source for its discussion of those headnote topics in
your report. Click the Show full text of headnotes link to view the
headnotes for the Shepardized case.
Narrow by Jurisdiction: place checks to the left of binding and persuasive
jurisdictions, and eliminate the citing references from all other sources.
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3.
Click Apply.
Narrow by terms
and/or analysis
type
Retain citing
references from
selected
jurisdictions
Retain cases that
cited to the
Shepardized
document,
discussing a
particular
Headnote. Check
ALL that apply.
Click Show full
text of
headnotes to
view the
headnotes for
the Shepardized
case
Narrow by date
VIII.
Shepard’s Table of Authorities: a “Reverse” Shepard’s Report
Narrow by date
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Narrow by date
C.
VI.
VII.
KWIC: Click the KWIC link in the upper-left corner to limit citing references to only
those which analyzed (as opposed to simply cited) the Shepardized source.
Shepardizing by Headnote
A.
While viewing a case, you can quickly Shepardize by headnote to see if any other
cases cited to the case, and discussed a relevant headnote. Just click the
Shepardize: Restrict by Headnote link at the end of the headnote text.
B.
The resulting report will be identical to one that has been restricted to HN4 via the
Focus – Restrict By template. Click the blue Unrestricted link to view the
complete report.
Table of Authorities
A.
Retrieve a list of all cases cited to by the court in the Mahoney v. Trabucco opinion
by clicking the blue TOA link at the top of the screen
B.
TOA can help you understand the underpinnings of the opinion – look at how
many cases with Warning analysis were relied upon in Mahoney v. Trabucco.
C.
Narrow the list and identify the most relevant cases by clicking the FOCUS –
Restrict by link at the top of the screen, and filter as you would filter a Shepard’s
report (see p. 5). Click Apply when finished.
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D.
VIII.
Shepard’s Alert: Monitor any changes in a Shepard’s report automatically
A.
B.
C.
IX.
X.
XI.
Check the citing references that remain, and then click the printer icon to print the
full-text of all of the selected citing references.
Click the blue Save as Shepard’s Alert link at the top of the report.
Complete the short form.
Click the Alerts tab to edit or delete an existing Alert, or to create a new Alert.
Shepardizing Statutes
A.
Type 29 USC 623 in the Citation toolbar at the top of the screen, select the
Shepard’s radio button, click Go
B.
Note that statutes that have been declared unconstitutional or void are assigned
the
symbol
C.
Any pending legislation that would impact the statute is noted on the right side as
follows:
Pending Legislation
D.
Click the Index link in the upper-left corner of the screen to view separate
Shepard’s reports for references to specific subsections of the Shepardized
statute, or group references that include the Shepardized statute
Shepardizing other sources.
A.
You can also Shepardize patents (Pat. No. 2627798), state codes (D.C. Code § 23103a), regulations, law review articles (10 UDC-DCSL L. Rev. 1), treatise sections,
administrative agency documents (such as IRS releases, like Revenue Ruling 80364), and more.
B.
Unsure of the citation format for a source you wish to Shepardize? Click
Shepard’s tab > Citation Formats blue link. Then type the source name to search
for the appropriate citation template.
Shepardizing multiple citations simultaneously using Get & Print.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Shepard’s tab > Get & Print link near the bottom.
Type all citations in the search field, separated by semi-colons or a hard return
Check Shepardize these citations
***Disable all pop-up blockers before clicking Get***
Double-click Back button on browser to return to Lexis.com.
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