Finding Court Cases

• Trial Courts (Courts of First Instance) are the first level. Trial courts make determinations of law and fact in both civil and criminal cases. Juries are generally involved in these cases. Most of these cases are unpublished decisions, meaning you may need to contact the specific court in which the case was tried in order to gain access to any available transcripts of the case.
• Circuit Courts (Courts of Appeal) >are the second level. Appellate courts examine cases for errors in the law in the records of the lower courts. Decisions are made by judges, no juries are involved.
• Supreme Court (Court of Last Resort) is the highest appeals court. A loser in an appellate court case can appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decides which cases it will hear. It can refuse to hear a case if they feel it is without merit.

A Reporter is a collection of court decisions for a particular court or group of courts. To find a case in a Reporter, you must know its legal citation [e.g., Roe v. Wade 410 US 113 (1973)].

If you don't know the legal citation:

• Look in a Digest, which is used to locate cases on a particular subject. (American Jurisprudence is a well-know Digest.) Digests provide summaries of and citations to cases, but do not provide access to the cases themselves. To access the cases, refer to the appropriate Reporter.
• Search for your case by Parties or Topic in Westlaw. See image and instructions below.

The example citation shown here is Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 114 (1973). The citation breaks down like this:

Note on Title Abbreviations: Standard abbreviations are used throughout case law. Some of the abbreviations you may come across in the Cofrin Library include:

• AmJur2d = American Jurisprudence 2nd Set (in Westlaw)
• US = United States Reports (Call number: GVP US JU 6.8/A and online)
• USC = United States Code (GVP US Y 1.2/5 and online)
• Wis = Wisconsin Reports (GVP Wis Cou.1 and some older editions digitized)
• Wis 2d = Wisconsin Reports 2nd Series (GVP Wis Cou.1 2d Ser.)

A complete Table of Abbreviations is available in Black's Law Dictionary, available online or in print.

In general, you will not find transcripts for cases from circuit courts and lower courts.

KeyCite is a tool within Westlaw that will tell you if the case (or other source type) is still "good law." This means that the case has not been overturned, superseded, or become invalid for another reason - either partially or in whole. Click on the flag to go to the Negative Treatment tab, where you can see which other cases may have affected yours.

See the images below to learn what to look for within Westlaw.