LexisNexis Shepard's Citations Service is basis for most influential state courts study

September 03, 2008

California Supreme Court's Jake Dear and Edward W. Jessen use Shepard's exclusive "followed by" analysis to demonstrate which state court is most influential

September 3, 2008 — New York, NY, September 3, 2008 - Attorneys have long relied on Shepard’s® Citations Service exclusive “followed by” analysis to ensure their legal arguments are based on solid, up-to-date precedent.

 
Now, Shepard's "followed by" citations have been used in a study by Jake Dear, chief supervising attorney, Supreme Court of California, and Edward W. Jessen, reporter of Decisions of California, to demonstrate which state supreme courts are considered the most influential by other state courts. 
 
The U.C. Davis Law Review published Dear and Jessen's study entitled "'Followed Rates' and Leading State Cases, 1940-2005" and a follow-up addendum this spring.  The study found that the Supreme Court of California was the most followed-by court in the United States, but there were some surprises in their list.
 
"Using Shepard's exclusive 'followed-by' service allowed us to gain insight into which courts were the most influential," said Jessen.  "As we state in the conclusion of the study, focusing on cases coded by Shepard's as followed offers an objective, fairly simple and effective method of analysis."
 
LexisNexis®, a leading global provider of legal and business information solutions, features Shepard's Citations Service on its lexis.com® service.  Generations of lawyers, judges and other legal researchers Shepardize® their cases to retrieve comprehensive lists of authorities that have cited their cases and to be sure their cases are still good law.
 
Only Shepard's Citations offers "followed by" analysis, which shows the specific instances when other decisions have expressly relied on a previous decision as controlling or persuasive authority.  
 
The study underscores a strong relationship between the California Supreme Court and LexisNexis.  Just recently, the two organizations agreed that LexisNexis will continue as the contract publisher of the California Official Reports.  LexisNexis has been the publisher of California Official Reports since 2003.