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.