QUICK GUIDE:  HOW TO FIND CASES

I. By Citation

A. Interpret the citation.

B. Locate your case in the appropriate reporter.

II. By Name

A. Identify the digest which most narrowly covers the jurisdiction of the case you are seeking (e.g. for Supreme Court cases, look in the Supreme Court digest, not the Federal Practice Digest, see chart) (Location: Burns, 2nd Floor. Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia: Stockton, 2nd Floor).  Note also that the Jacob Burns Law Library does not carry every digest.

B. Find the “Table of Cases” volume(s) within your digest and look up your case. The “Table of Cases” for a particular digest lists all cases indexed in that digest alphabetically by plaintiff and provides a citation to the reporter(s) where that case is published. Many digests also have a Defendant-Plaintiff table allowing searching by the name of the defendant.

III. By Topic

A. Locate the digest which most narrowly covers the jurisdiction(s) of interest (e.g. for Supreme Court cases, look in the Supreme Court digest, not the Federal Practice Digest, see chart). (Location: Burns, 2nd Floor. Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia: Stockton, 2nd Floor)

B. Use the digest’s "Descriptive Word Index" to locate a relevant Digest Topic and Key Number.

C. Locate the digest volume containing your Digest Topic and Key Number.

D. Beneath your Key Number are listed headnotes on your topic with a citation to the case where each note appears.

E. Don’t forget to check the pocket part for the most recent cases.

F. Using the citation you found in the digest, locate your case(s) in the appropriate reporter.

last updated: 5/29/07