EAC 795: Legal Issues in Training and Development
Citators
Statutory, regulatory, and case law are all subject to subsequent review by
the judicial branches of the states and federal government. For example,
having found a case that supports the position of a litigant, a trial lawyer
(or a thorough student) needs to know whether the law established by that
decision remains in effect.
In general, the court system holds to the principle of stare
decisis, to stand by (previous) decisions. Have later cases affirmed the
earlier decision in a case? Or have later cases overturned the original
decision? Perhaps there has been considerable debate or criticism of the
decision that has left its authority eroded.
Citators are the tool to determine the current status of statutory,
regulatory, or case law. The prime publisher of these volumes is Shepard's,
and the verb, "to Shepardize," has come to mean that the subsequent history of
a cited case has been examined to determine its continued relevance with
respect to a new case at hand. For a student, shepardizing a case is a good
way to find whether a case has been cited by subsequent cases, and to trace
how a law has been interpreted and applied over a period of time.
Citators exist for the different levels of the states and federal judicial
systems, for bodies of regulatory law, and for statutory law.
-
Shepard's
Citations (LexisNexis Academic)
- NCSU's Information System; restricted use via remote
access.
The only way to search for a case in Shepard's is to use its
citation:
volume source page
You may confirm the proper abbreviation of the source title using the
"Citation Formats" link.
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