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 A red flag indicates that the statute has been amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or in part.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 are the types of negative treatment?
Oct 15, 2021 · Negative Treatment: 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.
How do I find the negative treatment of a case?
Sep 10, 2021 · Negative Treatment: 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.
How do I find negative references in Westlaw?
Sep 15, 2021 · Cases & Administrative Decisions - some negative treatment, but not reversed or overruled; Statutes & Regulations - proposed legislation or rule available, court decision has questioned validity, or prior version received negative treatment from a court; Red Flag. Cases & Administrative Decisions - no longer good for at least one point of law
How do I use the negative treatment tab?
Feb 18, 2022 · 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 A red flag indicates that the statute has been amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or in part.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 it mean when a case has negative treatment?
What does depth of treatment mean on Westlaw?
What does a blue flag mean on Westlaw?
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 do the green bars mean in Westlaw?
What does it mean to Shepardize a case on Westlaw?
What does Currentness mean in Westlaw?
How do you Shepardize a case in Westlaw?
- Find a case; go to the full text of case.
- Top of screen should have a brief note that states if the case is overruled, superseded, etc.
- KeyCite information is under the tabs Negative Treatment, History, and Citing References.
- Click tab for Negative Treatment to see if still good law.
Does Westlaw have citing decisions?
What does C mean in Westlaw?
What is a key number in Westlaw?
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).
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.
What is a keycite?
KeyCite is the citation service offered through Westlaw. KeyCite relies on a variety of symbols to act as visual cues regarding the status of a case, statute, or regulation. Below are explanations of what each symbols means (as set forth by Westlaw):
What is a statute and regulation?
Statutes & Regulations - amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional or preempted in whole or in part.
Use Citators To Validate Your Statute
As discussed in more detail in the section of this guide pertaining to Cases: Validating Your Research, it is critical that you validate your research to insure that the primary source authority you are relying upon is still good law. Statutes can get amended. Courts can declare statutes unconstitutional.
Citators: Shepard's & KeyCite
KeyCite® is the citator in Westlaw. KeyCite, quite literally, flags statutes that are not good law.
How to determine validity of a case?
To determine the validity of your case, you must review those cases that offer negative treatment of your case. There are several types of negative treatment. 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 ...
What is a keycite?
KeyCite® is the citator in Westlaw. KeyCite, quite literally, flags cases that are not good law. Also, Key Cite provides a report of all the instances that a case has been treated negatively in other courts.
What is key citation?
Also, Key Cite provides a report of all the instances that a case has been treated negatively in other courts. When you pull up a case in Westlaw, there are tabs that appear immediately under the case title that give you information about the case history, negative treatment by other cases, and citing references.
What does a red flag mean in court?
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. A blue striped flag means that a case has been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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.
What does the green quotation mark mean in a case?
The green quotation marks mean that your case is directly quoted.
What is the table of authorities?
The Table of Authorities tab shows you a list of cases your case used to make its argument. The treatment, depth, and quoted columns will show you in how much detail the cases were used in your case's arugment.
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 is the purpose of a shepherd?
What is "Shepardizing"? One significant purpose of Shepardizing is to verify that a case is still "good law.". The overall action of Shepardizing is to use a citator to see the other cases that have cited a case and their treatment of that case. The term is based on a legal citation service created by Frank Shepard in 1873 ...
What does "good law" mean?
“Good law” means that the cases have not been reversed on appeal, overruled, superseded, or criticized by later cases.
How to use Keycite?
To use KeyCite: Find a case; go to the full text of case. Top of screen should have a brief note that states if the case is overruled, superseded, etc. KeyCite information is under the tabs Negative Treatment, History, and Citing References. Click tab for Negative Treatment to see if still good law. Click tab for History to see Graphic view of ...
What is bad law citation?
“Bad law.” The citing case expressly overrules or disapproves all or part of the case. Just like a repealed statute, the case can no longer be used as a controlling law. You will need to give the citation of the case that overruled the case you are briefing.
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.
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.
What is a certiorari order?
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. A party seeking Supreme Court review "petitions" the Court to issue a writ of certiorari.
