“Shepardizing” Confusion

How do you know if your case, statute or other authority is still good law? How can you find other authorities on the same subject or who have cited your case? Use a citator, one of which is Shepard’s Citations. Frank Shepard originated this legal service in 1873, and the company moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1948. For over 100 years, this citator was only available in print. It was primarily lists of case citations (without case names) that cite your case, preceded by a letter indicating whether it affirmed, overruled, discussed or followed your case. Shepard’s also listed the number for the West headnote topic and key number which the case discussed. This meant that one did not have to physically look up all of the cases listed, only the ones which dealt with your legal issue.

LexisNexis purchased Shepard’s in the later 1990s, and released their first online version around 1999. They began developing their own system for research headnotes and tools, which are also not a part of the case opinion they may precede. Until LexisNexis switched over to its own Citations they continued using the West topic and key numbers for their Shepard’s Citations. Like many libraries, the Westminster Law Library has discontinued most of their print Shepard’s Citations, except Colorado. The online version of Shepard’s is found in the law school password protected LexisNexis research system, as well as the publicly available LexisNexis Academic database on the Westminster Law Library’s homepage.

Here comes the confusion. West is a competitor of LexisNexis, and still publishes many of the official case reporters and secondary sources such as AmJur, ALR and digests, using its research tool known as the West topic and key number system. The password protected and the public Westlaw databases use this same tool, and call their citator “Keycite”. The Westlaw headnotes are not part of the case opinion, just as the newer LexisNexis headnotes used in their current online databases are not a part of the online opinion. So, you cannot plug a LexisNexis headnote into a West product, and you cannot use the West headnotes to find materials in the LexisNexis research system. Although you may hear attorneys using the now trademarked term “Shepardizing”, they often are still referring to the West citator and headnotes, or may be using that verb generically to say “is it still good law?”

Written by Catharine Cott, Reference Librarian