Online Legal Research Tools

 

  1. Lexis/Nexis:
    1. Click on “Search by Content Type” [upper right part of screen]
    2. Click on “[Legal] Federal and State Cases”
    3. Click on “Advanced options” and a large dialogue box should appear
    4. Un-check “All Federal and State Courts” and check either 9th Circuit or California [do a separate search for each jurisdiction one at a time]
    5. You can also enter a date range and/or in the Build Your Own Segment box, enter “and not unpublished,” then click on “Apply” at the bottom of the large box
    6. Now you are ready to enter search terms such as “Age discrimination in employment” [or whatever your topic] in front
    7. When the cases come up, click on U.S. Courts of Appeals Cases to the left of the vertical bar to make sure you don’t get District Court [trial court] cases
    8. When looking through the results, try to find those whose citation info includes “BNA” or “CCH” as these have been reported as most relevant by commercial research services
    9. Read individual cases to find those most useful to managers!
  2. Findlaw:
    1. Click on “Visit our professional site” in very small print at the top right corner of the page [under ARE YOU A LEGAL PROFESSIONAL?]
    2. At the top left [or bottom of this page, next to Research the Law—links go to same place], click on Cases and Codes
    3. Scroll down to the court listings and click on 9th Circuit Court of Appeals or California [again, do a separate search for each jurisdiction one at a time]
    4. Click on Free Text Search and enter your search terms [you can also try the date range using their exact format]
    5. Read individual cases to find those most useful to managers!
  3. Google Scholar:
    1. Click on Case Law, then Select Courts
    2. Click on 9th Circuit [check Court of Appeals only] or California and hit “Done” [again, separate searches for each]
    3. Enter your search terms in the Query box and search; when the cases come up, you can then delimit the date range by clicking on Custom Range on the left side of the page and hit search again. Good luck, and enjoy!!