Legal Research: Citators

The legal standing or authority of a case may change over time. A citator, which is a citation index of legal sources is consulted to keep abreast of these changes. In the United States  Shepard's Citations  became a well know citation index.  The verb Shepardizing is derived from the act of using Shepard's Citations, the process of consulting Shepard's to see if a case has been overturned, reaffirmed, questioned, or cited by later cases.

Use a citator to:

• Check the status of a case, statute or other authority to make sure it is still good law. That it has not been superseded, overruled, reversed, or questioned.
• A citator can provide parallel citations.
• Prior and subsequent appellate history.
• Find cases, statutes, law reviews and other legal resources that quote or cite on the same or similar legal issues.

Shepard’s Citations and Shepard’s Table of Authorities are available in Lexis/Nexis Academic. Shepardizing is an option that can be displayed in your search results or you can search Shepard’s Citations directly with a case citation.