Esteemed Students!
In Thursday’s class (April 29), we’ll learn about validating case law! That means: determining whether a case is still “good law,” such that it has not been overruled or otherwise undermined by another court’s decision, or by enactment of a statute or regulation or constitutional amendment. In prep for that discussion, please choose any one (or more!) of the three resources on validating linked below, read it, then write a reply to this post responding to what you read in some way. For example, you can identify something(s) you found interesting about it, and explain why; and/or ask question(s) about it, and note why you think it’s important to know those things; and/or write something else about the readings that you’d like to write! To reply, click “leave a reply” or “[#] Replies” below, or click the “comment” bubble in the upper right corner. Please post your reply by 9am Thursday morning!
Happy reading, see you Thursday! Prof. C.
Resources:
On the paralegal.laws.com link I thought it was interesting that they mentioned how the internet but more specifically LexisNexis helps with “Shepherdazing” the legal field. I have heard of LexisNexis and its importance in the legal field but was not sure exactly what it was used for and why its considered so important. Knowing that LexisNexis provides an easily accessible online portal for everyone in the legal field to see if legal research is valid or not or up to date at least tells me that I should definitely familiarize myself with the website as soon as possible as it will most likely be a necessary tool to be using in my career.
Thanks Shayer! Here at City Tech you’ll use Westlaw which serves the same purpose as LexisNexis but you probably will learn LN at some point in your legal career. They work similarly. Westlaw has its own “Shepardizing” tool called KeyCite.
KC
In the UCLA website it has everything in order for you! it gives you many options so you check yourself and double check yourself. These links can help check the validation of a case– Even though you should check the cases the old fashion way by reading the case in whole– some help from the legal community is a plus. Another plus is you can keep the history of searches on file. This is helpful for everyone in the legal field and my future career.
Thanks Daniella, I’m glad you found that site useful! I was pretty excited to find it.
KC
Paralegals are considered to be the backbone of law. One of their main roles is to identify prior decisions that are binding law in order to win a case. Most firms rely on citators which are servers that act as search engines for good law. Good law is decisions that an attorney or judge can cite in court to sway or defend a decision. One thing I did not know is that the application that finds good law compromises of pretty much just one company called Shepardâs, once again modern-day monopolies controlling the narrative. Also, I learned that before Shepardâs was prominent firms relied on books to provide them with good law, however technology quickly provided a more efficient tool. It is my goal to become familiar with finding related cases faster and knowing case history.
Thanks Jasiyah! Actually as we’ll discuss, “Shepardizing” has kind of become a generic term for all citechecking, like “Band-Aid” for all adhesive bandages. Yes you’re lucky you don’t have to use the books for that work like I did, back in the covered wagon days. đ
KC
It was extremely interesting reading about citator service because these cites are significant, and they also make the legal process easier for the researcher. For instance, Keycite flags cases that are not good law, and have been treated negatively in other courts. It is important to distinguish whether or not your case is good law, by knowing if a case was reversed, overruled, or suspended in order to validate your case. I also found it helpful that Keycite does not just simply advise if a case has negative treated, but they specify the negative treatment with a red, yellow, or blue flag. As a paralegal I want to become familiar with all types of research tools, to ensure my research is valid, and up to date.
Yes I find those color-coded flags very helpful! We’ll look at how they work in today’s class. Thanks Kaela!
KC
I read the articles from the laws.com website and the UCLA website and found how important it is to validate your cases. To validate your case you have to use a citatory service, some include Westlaw, LexisNexis and Bloomberg. Although you these citatory services are essential to finding out whether your case is good law, more importantly you have to carefully read the cases you are considering. This is because although a citatory service might say that a case is not good law, it might have been reversed, overruled, or suspended for another issue not relating for your case. So if you just rely on the citatory service you might be excluding a case that actually supports your position
Thanks Ariana! Yes, reading the cases is critical. The attorneys often leave that task to the paralegals, so I hope you enjoy doing it. đ
KC
I’ve never realized the effects of a case being modified, overruled or deemed unconstitutional. I know that Judge holdings can be change but I never realized that the modifications can effect future cases. I learned that there are tools used to assist paralegals and other legal professionals who are looking for case history and validity for example Shepard’s online website. This website will also aid one in knowing the appellate history, and their decisions.
Thanks Leilani! Yes, a subsequent ruling that affects a case on which you relied can throw a real monkey wrench into one’s legal strategy. I’ve had it happen, it’s not fun.
KC
In reading the textbook chapter about validating case law, I really liked learning about Shepardâs symbols. For example, the red stop sign warns that the case may have been overruled. The green diamond shows that a citing court has given the case positive treatment. Having these kinds of clear markers really helps to further your understanding of a case, and helps you to see easily whether it will be beneficial to use! I also like that you can see all of the decisions a certain judge has made as well as being able to see trends in the reception of a case. All of this available data can really amplify your legal research.
Thanks Mackenzie! Yes, citators provide lots of great info, not just whether a case was overruled.
Upon reading the articles I found validation to be interesting and look forward to learning how to cite check a case. Even though there are other citators online sites, it appears that the main two citators are shepardâs from LexisNexis and KeyCite from Westlaw. If possible I would like Professor to show us an example online maybe via screen sharing. I was also wondering if, for example, we are asked to find the Derek Chauvin case that just concluded using these resources, or to find and read a slip version, how does one go about finding it?
Thanks Nasser! Yes we’ll definitely have a “demonstration” of KeyCiting on Westlaw in today’s class.
KC
The citator service was a very help article . But I have a question â citator serviceâ does that means like helpful website that helps make sure that documentation is correct. As in westlaw, lexis and Bloomberg? And in addition I agree with my classmate professor if you can just show us via screen sharing to see how itâs suppose to be done that would be great
Thanks Alexandra! Yes “citator service” refers to all those sources you mention. We’ll certainly have a demonstration today!
KC
legal research validation shows credibility- I found it interesting that it gave web sources where we can find credible sources being that just simply googling may not always be valid. I’m familiar with LexisNexis as I always see it when I’m looking for information on a case so i’m glad to know that its validated and updated frequently.
Thanks Sherona! You have a head start, that you already know LexisNexis. You’ll learn Westlaw here at City Tech.
KC
As I was going through the UCLA website, I was surprisedhow informative it was. It was very detailed but at the same time it went straight to the point. As a paralegal, there is extensive research and preping when focusing on each case presented and its essential to submit acurrate work to a attorney so validation is important. On this website, its interesting to see that they demonstrated three citators and it includes images of each. For example, using any of the citators, it provides wether the case is good law or not. In Bcite in Bloomberg, it provides a photo how the page would look like when the case has been overruled in full or in part in which it would have a red box with a minus sign. Overall, the website is very helpful and informative so for sure it can be useful when looking into a case.