If a case has negative treatment identified by Westlaw, next to the case name, Westlaw will include a red, yellow, or blue striped flag. A red flag, as in the above sample, means a case is no longer good for at least one point of law. A yellow flag means that a case has some negative treatment but has not been reversed or overruled.
What does negative treatment mean on a case report?
If the treatment is negative, this column will include a "Negative" notation. Depth: This column indicates the extent to which the subsequent cases have treated the cited case: examined (4 bars), discussed (3 bars), cited (2 bars), and mentioned (1 bar).
How do I know if a statute has strong negative treatment?
When you pull up a statute in Lexis, there are indicators that appear next to the statutory citation to signal if there is negative treatment for the statute. A red circle with a question mark in it indicates that a statute has strong negative treatment.
How do I find negative references in Westlaw?
Westlaw also offers a "Negative Treatment" tab containing negative direct history and negative citing references. Clicking on the status flag next to the case name will also bring you to this Negative Treatment report. The Shepard's Report contains information about both subsequent history and subsequent citations for a case.
How do I review a case in Westlaw edge?
When reviewing a case in Westlaw Edge, you should look for a KeyCite flag at the top of the document. Not every case will have one, but if it does, it means the case has some negative treatment — such as being overruled, superseded, or not followed by another court for some reason.
What does negative treatment mean in Westlaw?
The Negative Treatment tab provides the negative history for a case, which includes all negative direct history and negative citing references. Westlaw Edge will mark the document with the most negative treatment so you can quickly spot the most relevant information.
What does depth of treatment mean on Westlaw?
The depth of treatment bars in the Depth column indicate the extent to which the citing case discusses the cited case, and the headnote numbers in the Headnote(s) column indicate which headnotes in the cited case contain the points of law discussed by the citing cases.
How do you tell if a case is still good law on Westlaw?
To determine whether a case is still good law, you need to check the subsequent history of the case as well as subsequent citations to see how other cases have treated your case by using citators (Shepardizing on Lexis or KeyCiting on Westlaw).
What do Green quotes mean in Westlaw?
The Citing References tab list materials that listed your case. You can narrow the results to just cases, by jurisdiction, or by depth (how detailed your case was talked about). The green quotation marks mean that your case is directly quoted.
What do the different color flags mean on Westlaw?
When you pull up a statute in Westlaw, if you see a red or yellow flag, that means that there is negative treatment for that statute. A red flag indicates that the statute has been amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or in part. A yellow flag indicates other negative treatment.
What does Blue H mean in Westlaw?
WESTLAW® QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE A blue H indicates that the case or administrative decision has some history. A green C indicates that the case or administrative decision has citing references but no direct history or negative citing references or that the statute or regulation has citing references.
What does it mean to Shepardize a case on Westlaw?
The term Shepardize means the process of checking a case's prior precedents. The term comes from the citation service called Shepard's, which up until the late 1990s was the only real game in town. Then Westlaw quit using Shepard's, Shepard's went to Lexis (Westlaw's main competitor), and Westlaw launched KeyCite.
What does a yellow triangle on Lexis mean?
A yellow triangle indicates that there may be some negative treatment but that the case has not been overturned. The red octagon indicates that the case has been overturned on at least one point of law. A full list of all the signals and additional help in using Shepard's is available in the Lexis Advance Help Guide.
What does a yellow flag mean on Lexis?
The yellow signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain history or treatment that may have a significant negative impact on your case (for example, limited or criticized by).
How do you read a case on Westlaw?
0:006:11Reading a Case on WestlawNext - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipRecord for that particular case. So if we look at this really quickly you'll notice that theMoreRecord for that particular case. So if we look at this really quickly you'll notice that the citation is at the very top it also indicates what court heard this case and you have your plaintiff.
What are notes of decisions on Westlaw?
Notes of/to Decisions are like a highlights reel of cases applying or interpreting the statute; they are example cases selected by the editors of Westlaw or Lexis that address certain topics.
What does distinguished by mean in Westlaw?
In law, to distinguish a case means a court decides the legal reasoning of a precedent case will not wholly apply due to materially different facts between the two cases.
How to determine if a case is still good law?
To determine whether a case is still good law, you need to check the subsequent history of the case as well as subsequent citations to see how other cases have treated your case by using citators (Shepardizing on Lexis or KeyCiting on Westlaw).
What is a reference in a case?
Citing References include all cases that cite to this case. Citing References also include other materials such as secondary sources and court documents, but to ensure that a case is still good law, you only need to check the cases.
Can you cite unpublished opinions?
For instance, the case might be bad law on a different issue, the case itself might have been overturned, or the case may simply be unpublished (in some jurisdictions, court rules indicate that you cannot cite unpublished opinions).
Does Westlaw have a negative treatment tab?
Westlaw also offers a "Negative Treatment" tab contain ing negative direct history and negative citing references. Clicking on the status flag next to the case name will also bring you to this Negative Treatment report.
How do you know if a case is still good law?
They also get criticized and distinguished. The only way you can know if your case is still good law is to validate your research. "Validating" your case research means to run your case through a citator service to see if there are subsequent legal authorities that invalidate your case and then reading those cases that negatively impact your case.
What happens if Westlaw has no flag?
If there is no flag, then Westlaw has not identified any negative treatment for the case. When you pull up a case that has been flagged, in addition to the "History" tab, you also should click on the tab marked "Negative Treatment" to get the full negative history report.
What does a red stop sign mean in Lexis?
A red stop sign indicates that a case may have been overruled or reversed.
How to see all citations in Lexis?
To see all citing cases, including other negative treatment cases identified by Lexis, you must click on "Citing Decisions.". That generates a list of all the cases, identified by Lexis, that have cited to your case. At the left of that list is a series of filters that will allow you to narrow the results.
Is it good to have a case overruled?
Cases that have been reversed, overruled, or superseded are no longer good law and typically should not be relied upon. However, sometimes cases are simply reversed/overruled/superseded in part, or sometimes the issue on which the case was reversed/overruled/superseded is not the issue for which you are using the case.
Do you want to rely on the original case?
In that circumstance, you probably would not want to rely on the original case. Accordingly, when you see references to cases that include this kind of negative treatment that does not tend to invalidate your case, you should READ THE CASES to determine the extent to which you want to rely on your original case.
Can you cite a case without reading the citator report?
There is simply no shortcut or substitute for reading those cases. If you assume you cannot rely upon a certain case based solely on the citator report, without actually reading the negative treatment cases, you may end up losing the opportunity to cite to case that is valid for your issue and supports your position.
When the citator reveals negative authority for your statute, must you read the material?
When the citator reveals negative authority for your statute, you must READ THE MATERIALS to determine the extent on which you can rely on the statute. When cases declare statutes invalid, frequently only a portion of the statute is at issue, with the remaining portions remaining valid and controlling.
What is a keycite in Westlaw?
Citators: Shepard's & KeyCite. KeyCite® is the citator in Westlaw. KeyCite, quite literally, flags statutes that are not good law. When you pull up a statute in Westlaw, if you see a red or yellow flag, that means that there is negative treatment for that statute.
What is the history tab in Westlaw?
When you are in a statute in Westlaw, there are tabs that appear immediately toward the top of the document that give you information about the statute. One of these tab is "History.". When you click on the History tab, select the catagory "Validity" to see materials that may effect the validity of your statute.
What does a red circle with a question mark on the Lexis citation mean?
A red circle with a question mark in it indicates that a statute has strong negative treatment.
Do negative treatment cases compromise the validity of a statute?
Similarly, the other negative treatment cases do not compromise the validity of the statute under most circumstances. If you were to review the proposed legislation section of the report, you would see that there has not been much legislative activity on any of the pending bills.
What does the green quotation mark mean in a case?
The green quotation marks mean that your case is directly quoted.
What does the green flag mean in a case?
Some cases will have flags in front of the name. Green flags mean the case has received positive treatment from other cases and is good law. Yellow flags mean the case has received some negative treatment from other cases. Part of the case maybe overruled. Look at the negative treatment tab and the distinguished by to read the other cases. Red flags mean the case has received negative treatment and has been overruled by a higher court. The case is no longer good law.
Overview
There are two main case law citators to verify the status of your case - on LexisNexis, it is Shepards and on Westlaw it is Keycite. Keyciting and Shepardizing are also a method for finding other cases and secondary sources relevant to your topic.
KeyCite & Shepards Symbols
There are differences between the citator symbols used by Westlaw and Lexis, but as a general rule, in either Westlaw or Lexis cases with a red flag or red stop sign may no longer be good law and should not be relied upon without doing further research.
Bloomberg Law
BCite is a citation analysis tool similar to KeyCite and Shepards, which gives you links to all cases citing your case.
CALI Lesson on Using Citators as Finding Tools
Available to Law Students only (see a reference librarian if you do not have a CALI activation code).
What happens if an appeals court reverses a lower court decision?
If an appeals court reverses the judgment of the lower court, it may “remand” (send back) a case to the trial court for further action. Please note that you will probably not see a revised opinion published by the lower court. You can assume that the change was made by the lower court.
What does "good law" mean?
“Good law” means that the cases have not been reversed on appeal, overruled, superseded, or criticized by later cases.
What is a writ of certiorari?
Certiorari is a writ (order) by the appeals court to a lower court to send all the documents in a case so that the appeals court can review the decision. Most commonly used by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Do you need to cite a case that criticized the case you are briefing?
The citing opinion disagrees with the reasoning/result of the case you are Shepardizing, although the citing court may not have the authority to materially affect its precedential value. You will need to give the citation of the case that criticized the case you are briefing.
Can you use Shepherdize in Nexis?
You can only use the brand name service “Shepardize” in Nexis Uni. Westlaw has created a similar product called “KeyCite.” Like Shepard's, KeyCite is also available for state and federal cases.
What is the process of citing a case in support of a legal argument?
The process by which one determines whether a case is still good law is called "Shepardizing.".
What does it mean when a case has an abbreviation?
If you find a case with an abbreviation that indicates the court reversed, overruled or denied your case, take note of the citation. You MUST look it up to determine how exactly the ruling affected the law in your case. Note that the citations are to the specific pages of other cases that have cited your case.