When looking up a court case or opinion, read between the numbers. As an
example, in Marbury v. Madison 5 US 137, the "US" specifies that it is a
US, or United States Supreme Court opinion. The first set of numbers indicates
the volume and the second set, the page number in the volume. In other words,
the Marbury v. Madison case is located in the fifth volume of the published
United States (US) Supreme Court opinions, on page 137.
When you come across abbreviations of a state in between numbers, as in Tibets
v. Olson 91 Fla 824, they represent the state supreme court that decided
the case. All other numbers indicate page and volume, the same as identified
above for a United States Supreme Court Opinion.
In opinions where you see, "F2d" between the numbers, that refers to "federal,
2d" and "F Supp," between the numbers, refers to Federal Supplement, such
as Pike v. United States 340 F2d 487.
"Am. Jur. 2nd," short for American Jurisprudence, is simply another way to
say "American legal philosophy." It is a volume of light green books that
is basically an encyclopedia of court opinions and legal arguments that assist
and direct judges in their own opinions. 16 Am Jur 2nd 255, means 16th volume
of the book and page 255. Anyone beginning basic legal research should consider
looking at Constitutional Law in volume 16, sections 1 - 300 of American
Jurisprudence.
As with American Jurisprudence, the same holds true with the United State
Code, U.S.C., a reddish brown volume of books and the United State Code Service,
U.S.C.S., a black volume.
In every Supreme Court opinion, there are three basics; the decision, the
majority opinion and the dissenting opinion. The decision is what the court
decided on that particular case. The majority opinion is how the majority
of the justices voted and the logic, reasoning and case law (similar rulings
of previous courts) that they used to reach that decision. The dissenting
opinion is the reasoning of the justices who did not agree with the majority
and why they believed the final decision was unjust. The arguments in the
dissenting opinion are given by the justices in hopes that next time a similar
case comes before the court, those arguments will be used and expanded to
help overturn the prior case. United States Supreme Court opinions stand
above all other court opinions.
To determine the validity of a case, look it up in a volume of red books
called Shepard's Citations. The first set of numbers always represents volume,
the second set represents the section of the volume. The number of decisions
listed under the case you are looking at represents how many times the case
has been argued and upheld. The larger the number of decisions, the more
it's been upheld and the greater it's power. At the beginning of these volumes
is a chart showing what the letters to the left of a case signify. For example,
an 'O' to the left of the decision means that the case has been overturned.
Examine the 5th volume of Supreme Court decisions in Shepard's and turn to
the case starting at Sec. 137, Marbury v. Madison. Decisions backing it up
represent nine pages and note that there are no O's making it one of the
most powerful cases one can site in their defense.
Anyone new to legal research must understand that words used in opinions
and decisions are often not everyday language and usually have a different
legal meaning then most are familiar with. It would certainly benefit a new
researcher to obtain a copy of Black's Law Dictionary. The definitions in
the dictionary have been used in court for over a century and most college
bookstores usually have used copies that one can cheaply purchase. While
you may not refer to it often, a great deal of knowledge can be obtained
simply by spending a little time going through it.
There are many excellent "law" sites on the internet that one can research
by simply searching for a specific problem, such as, "How can I sue a
prosecutor." Whatever opinions exist regarding that issue and have been entered
into that site database, will appear. Some of these legal research sites
can be accessed from our site and are available at
Legal Research.