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- What is Shepard’s?
- Shepard’s is a Citation
Index for case law
- • federal laws and
regulations
- • state laws and
regulations
- • Shepard’s has become a
verb: Shepardize (the process of locating reports of appeals decisions
based on prior precedents from Shepard's Citations)
- • Indexes all cases and
statutes (laws) which have changed the original case or statute
-
- What is Shepard’s used
for?
- To find what has happened
to a case or statute over time
Lawyers will ask “is it good law?”
Identifies parallel citations, higher court decisions, lower court
decisions, cases from other states and administrative decisions
Includes headnotes, law reviews, and secondary
sources which cite to the case or provision of law
-
- How is Shepard’s
organized?
- Shepard’s Citation
consists of at least three, sometimes four, parts:
1. hardbound main set of volumes (Case Edition or Statute Edition)
2. softbound Cumulative Supplement(s)
3. softbound Update(s)
4. Some Editions may also contain a hardbound Supplement Edition.
To get the full picture regarding your case you must consult all parts of
Shepard’s.
Shepard’s Citations are available for U.S. laws and cases and each of the
50 states.
Pollak Library owns Federal and California only.
Case citations are arranged in the following order:
1. Parallel citations (in parentheses)
2. Federal and state cases that have a relationship to the case
3. Other federal cases arranged by federal circuit
4. Federal administrative decisions
5. Other state cases, arranged alpha by state
6. Selected secondary sources-
- Examples of changes for
cases include:
- a
affirmed
d dismissed
r reversed
v vacated
cert gran certioriari granted
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- Examples of changes for
statutes include:
- A amended
C constitutional
Re-en reenacted
S superseded
U unconstitutional
# questionable
What do the symbols mean?
Within each volume of
Shepard’s, there is a detailed explanation of how to read the entries and
how to decipher abbreviations and symbols.
On the front and on the title page of each volume there is a list of each
reporter cited (for cases) or the name of each code cited (Labor Code,
Revenue & Taxation Code, etc.).
There is also a list of materials where the citations originally appear
(reporters, law reviews, statutes, etc.).
Following each citation
are letters and numbers identifying
"citations" of later documents that have cited
the item you are shepardizing. For example, "685 FS 1220 Cir.9".
indicates a later case from the U.S. Court of
Appeals, 9th Circuit, published in volume 685, pp. 1220 et seq., of a
series called Federal Supplement. (For abbreviations, check the Tables of
Abbreviations, at the front of Shepard's bound volumes.) The very small
numbers and letters in front of, or after, each citation tell you how the
later material treated your document in hand. For example, a small "f"
indicates the later case "followed" the case being shepardized, an "o"
that it was overruled. Sometimes, when shepardizing a case, one will find
very small numbers inserted within cites for later cases and printed
somewhat above the line. These very small numbers (example: 3) indicate
the later case cited the document in hand specifically for the rule of law
laid out in headnote number "X" of the case being shepardized (headnote 3
in our example). Be sure to check all Shepards' volumes/pamphlets that
cover time periods after the date of your document.
How do I find Shepard's in
Pollak Library?
See
CATALOG RECORDS and
note LOCATION and
CALL NUMBER.
Shepard's United States Citations
CATALOG RECORD
Shepard's Federal Statutes Citations
CATALOG RECORD
Shepard's California Citations: Cases
CATALOG RECORD
Shepard's California Citations: Statutes
CATALOG RECORD
April 3,
2003
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