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Legal Research on LexisNexis Academic

II. Find Federal and State Statutory Law

Introduction

Access to the LexisNexis Academic database is available on all Scribner Library subject pages and the A to Z list of databases. If off-campus, you will be prompted for your Skidmore username and password. Direct access to LexisNexis Academic Legal is available on the Law and Society and Government subject pages on the Lucy Scribner Library website.

LexisNexis Academic provides access to the primary legal materials of U.S. federal and state case and statutory law, as well as the secondary sources of law reviews and legal news that often aid in finding and understanding the law.
This guide will introduce you to some of the ways you may use LexisNexis Academic to do legal research

For help in interpreting legal citations consult this book shelved in the Reference Collection:

Prince, Mary Miles. Prince’s Bieber Dictionary of Legal Citations: reference guide for attorneys, legal secretaries, paralegals, and law students. Ref. KF 246 .P73 2006

I. Find a Case
______by name | by citation | in a particular jurisdiction | on a particular topic

Select the <Federal and State Cases> search form in the left navigation bar.

A. Get a case law decision when you know the name(s) of the party/parties:
You can search just one name if that is all you know.

Then select <U. S. Supreme Court Cases> in the left navigation bar to limit results to decision(s) from that jurisdiction.

B. Get a case law decision when you know the case citation:
If unsure of the reporter abbreviation you might try searching with the proximity connector that determines order, for example: < 83 pre/4 792>
This means: 83 must precede 792 by no more than 4 words.

You can now read the full text of the case.

Note citation and parallel citations of the case.

C. Search for cases from a particular jurisdiction

Select jurisdiction from Sources menu

D. Search for cases on a particular topic of law

Select Sources tab and then filter by country, region, and/or topic

Then browse publication type: cases

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II. Find a Statute
______browse | by citation | by topic

A. Browse for a Statute by citation

Select Sources tab

Then select Browse Sources tab

Select country and region in the pull-down menus.

Select <Legislation, Statutes, & Codes> folder.

Select <Statutes (Statutory Codes)>
A code is a topical compendium of the statutory (or regulatory) law.

Browse <Statutes, Constitution, Rules, & ALS, Combined>

Expand Title and Chapter and Article.

Select appropriate statute.

Retrieve full text of statute

B. Search by citation:

Using the <Federal and State Codes> search form, select a Source in the pulldown menu.

Expand <Search specific document sections> to search for terms in a section

Enter terms to search in a section and click <Add to Search>. This builds your search in the <Search Terms> window.

Formatted search will now appear in the search window

Additional section searches can be added using the pulldown menu. Once you know the appropriate sections for the sources you are searching, you can compose the search directly in the <Search Terms> window.

Results of search

C. Search by Topic:

Enter keywords in <Search Terms> field

Results of search

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III. Find Federal Regulations
______by topic | by citation

Select Federal and State Codes form to search the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) – an annual compendium of federal regulations that are currently in force.
- For proposed changes to the CFR, search Federal Register (FR)

A. Search by topic:

Enter keywords in <Search Terms> field

Results of search

B. Search by citation:

Enter <cite (citation)> to search the citation of a document

<cite (42 pre/4 411.54)> searches the citation of a document for “42” preceding “411.54” by no more than four words.

Results of search

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IV. Find Law Review Articles
______by topic | in a specific journal | by citation

A. Search by topic:
To search by topic start with terms and phrases that reflect ideas essential to your research. Then include connectors (Boolean connectors: OR and AND; Proximity Connectors: w/n, pre/n, w/s, w/p) and other special characters to link the terms and phrases, and to search for word variations. The truncation (!) and wildcard (*) characters make it easy to search for word variations. You can also use options such as date restrictions and document section searching to create a more specific search.

Basic Search Commands:
and	between terms, requires both terms to appear in the search results.<lawyer and malpractice>
or	between terms, requires either term to appear in the search results. <lawyer or attorney>
w/p	between terms, requires terms to appear in the same paragraph.
w/s	between terms, requires terms to appear within the same sentence.
w/n	between terms, requires a maximum number of words to appear between terms. w/5, w/10
!	at the end of a word, allows an unlimited string of letters to follow. mitigat! = mitigate, mitigation
*	within a word, allows any one letter to appear. wom*n = women or woman.

Enter key words in <Search Terms> search box to search article content.

Enter <holly w/2 wood AND mitigat! w/2 instruction> to search for law reviews in which “holly” is within two words of “wood,” and the root “mitigate” is within two words of “instruction.” The ! (exclamation point) allows all forms of the word mitigate to be retrieved.

Results of search

B. Search for Articles In a Specific Journal

Enter the journal name in <Title of Journal>

Results of search

C. Search for an Article by its Citation

Enter the citation in the <Article Citation> box.

Results of search

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V. Shepard's
______cases | law reviews

Use the Shepard's® Citations search form to retrieve prior and subsequent history and all citing references for a case. Shedpardizing is the process of using Shepard’s Citations to determine the validity and/or status of a case or legal authority, in other words a way of tracking the law to see if it is still “good” law.

A. Cases

Select Shepard’s Citations from left navigation links.

Enter case or statute citation.

Click on <Citation Formats> if unsure of correct citation format for Shepard’s.

Shepard’s Case Results

B. Law Reviews

Check law review citations to identify more current references on topic.

Shepard's Law Review Results

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Last Updated: September 10, 2008
Page maintained by: Barbara Norelli