Legal Research & Resources: Finding Cases

Below are parallel citations for commonly assigned cases.

Click on one of the handy PDF guides below for a list of all the legal resources available at Cerritos College Library

California Blue and White Book - Use to convert your citation to a parallel citation

• North wall of Reference Stacks - LAW KFC47.4 C35

One bound volume and pamphlet supplements. The tables contain in one column a list of pages of the state reports on which each case begins, and in a parallel column gives the volume and page of the Pacific Reporter and California Reporter.

Pacific Reporter. 1884-1931.

• North Wall of Reference Stacks - Law Collection - KFC44.P24
  

Contains all the decisions of the Supreme Court of California, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico from 1883-1931.

California Reporter, covering cases reported in Pacific Reporter. Second Series. 1931-1960.

• North Wall of Reference Stacks—Law Collection - KFC45 .C3

Contains all the decisions of the Supreme Courts of California, Kansas, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Oklahoma from 1931-1960. Also contains the District Courts of Appeal and Appellate Department of the Superior Court of California and Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma from 1931-1960.

West's California Reporter. 1960-1992.

• North Wall of Reference Stacks—Law Collection KFC47 .C32

Cases decided in the California Supreme Court, Superior Court Appellate Dept., and the California Court of Appeals from 1960-1991.

West's California Reporter. Second series.

• East Wall of Reference Stacks—Law Collection KFC48 .A32

Cases reported in California Supreme Court, Superior Court of Appeals, and the California Court of Appeals from 1991-2003

West’s California Reporter. Third series.

• East Wall of Reference Stacks—Law Collection KFC48 .A33 

Cases reported in California Supreme Court, Superior Court of Appeals, and the California Court of Appeals from 2003 to the present.

Finding U.S. and Supreme Court Cases:

• Lexis-Nexis Academic    (Requires username & password)
  
  • Includes full text of federal and state codes, regulations, court decisions, and law review articles.  The most complete resource for finding full text decisions and for shepardizing case law.  Students taking advanced law classes should ask professors for username & password to access this resource.

Finding Supreme Court Cases:

• U.S. Supreme Court
  
  • Official U.S. Supreme Court web site. Includes the docket, calendar, court rules, opinions, orders and other information about the Court.  Most useful for cases from the previous two years.

• Cornell Legal Information Institute site for Supreme Court Decisions
  • The LII collection of historic decisions of the US Supreme Court contains over 300 of the court's most important decisions through the whole period of its existence.  Contains full text for 1990+, but has abstracts and citations for historical cases.  This is a great place to start, if you're looking for cases on a certain topic!!
  • On the lower portion of the screen, under Archive of Decisions you can browse by topic from 1990 - present, or by historic cases.  

• Oyez Project
  • The Oyez Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.

Other Websites for Finding Cases:

• Google Scholar
  • Recently updated to include federal and state court decisions, and law review articles.  It can be a little friendlier then the Search in Lexis Nexis, but it is not as comprehensive a resource.

• United States Federal Courts Finder
  
  • Provides links to web pages for each of the federal circuit courts, including a map showing states included in each district. Most districts include full text to decisions from 1995 to date.

• United States Government Information Guide
  
  • For more resources on the Judicial Branch
• California Codes
• Individual Codes or the entire set of 29 Codes can be searched by keyword

• California Municipal Codes and Ordinances

• SCALL (southern California Associations of Law Libraries): Locating the Law, 5th edition
• A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians