07/28/2008 09:19:19 AM EST
What Can Shepard’s® Do For You?
Shepard’s® Citations Service helps you build your arguments efficiently and reliably—and ensure that you have good law. Because Shepard’s is conveniently integrated into the LexisNexis® services at www.lexis.com, it’s easy to jump right to relevant cases, statutes, secondary sources and court documents that cite your authority.
Use Shepard’s early—as soon as you’ve discovered an on-point case or statute—to find other relevant authorities. And use Shepard’s to validate current precedential value before you rely on a legal authority to support your argument.
Shepardize® a Citation:
1. Sign on to www.lexis.com
2. Click the Shepard’s tab.
3. Enter your citation, e.g., 800 f2d 111, in the open field. Keep the automatic selection Shepard’s for Research - prior and subsequent history and all citing references (FULL).
4. Click Check to process your request.
Your Shepard’s report is easy to understand and navigate—starting with the Shepard’s Summary, which lets you preview the report’s contents and plan your approach, so you don’t miss anything important. See the Lexis® Hub article on customizing your Shepard’s report from a single screen.
Only Shepard’s uses skilled attorney-editors whose sole responsibility is to analyze court opinions to ensure that the service reflects even the most subtle impact on cited decisions. Shepard’s exclusive full spectrum of analysis—from strongly negative to positive—helps you spot splits of authority, including situations where a case may have been overruled on one issue but remains good law on other issues.
And now you can identify cited cases that discuss specific issues of interest through integration of LexisNexis® headnotes into Shepard’s citations.
Restrict Your Results for Relevance with LexisNexis® Headnotes
To help you quickly find other decisions that deal with your particular issue, the LexisNexis headnotes from your case are matched to text on the same issue in citing cases. You can see these results in your Shepard’s Summary at the top of your report.
Plus, when viewing a full-text citing reference, you can go to the Shepard’s Summary at the top, find a LexisNexis headnote of interest that has a Shepardize: Restrict by Headnote link, and click that link to Shepardize the citing case. (Results are automatically restricted to the specific LexisNexis headnote.)
At every stage of the legal research process, Shepard’s is an essential tool for building your case.