Legal Research for Undergraduates

• The federal government and each state government has its own court system. 
• Cases are filed in a trial court, appealed to a court of appeals, and then finally appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court or the Supreme Court for the state.
• In the federal system:
  • Cases are filed in a district court. The district court's name includes the name of the state in which it is located, which can confuse students. The Central District of California is a federal trial court located in California and the Southern District of New York is a federal trial court located in New York. They are not state courts! 
  • Courts of appeals are divided into circuits. For example, decisions by federal courts in California and other western states are appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, while decisions by federal courts in New York and nearby states are appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. 
  • Decisions of circuit courts of appeals can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Different states have different names and structures for their court systems:
  • In California, cases are filed in county superior courts, appealed to the California Court of Appeal, and then finally appealed to the California Supreme Court. 
  • New York calls its trial courts supreme courts, its court of appeals the Appellate Division, and its supreme court the Court of Appeals.
  • Texas has two supreme courts, one for criminal cases and one for civil cases. Likewise, Tennessee has two courts of appeals, one for criminal cases and one for civil cases.
  • Montana has no court of appeals- all appeals are heard directly by the Montana Supreme Court.

• Judges select their most important decisions for publication. This includes all supreme court decisions, a small handful of court of appeals decisions, and an even tinier handful of federal trial court cases (and very, very rarely) state trial court cases.
• Published cases are printed in books called reporters. Most published decisions are published in more than one reporter. For example: 
  • Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court, 416 P.3d 1, 40 (Cal. 2018) is a California Supreme Court case published in the unofficial Pacific Reporter. This case held that workers for a delivery company were employees rather then independent contractors and established California's current ABC test for distinguishing employees from independent contractors.
  • Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903, 964 (2018) is the same case published in the official California Reports.
• Most decisions are not published!
  • Unpublished decisions do not create binding law and some courts prohibit citing them. In particular, California courts prohibit the citation of their unpublished decisions(Cal. Rules of Court Rule 8.1115) and the federal Ninth Circuit prohibits citation of its unpublished decisions before 2007. (9th Cir. Rule 36-3.)
  • Many courts allow you to cite unpublished decisions as persuasive (not mandatory) and you can always cite unpublished decisions in academic writing.
  • However, unpublished decisions may be trickier to find. Although some are on Nexis Uni or free websites, others are only available by contacting the court and purchasing a copy.
• Although most attorneys access cases online, cases are still cited to print reporters.
• The print reporter citation identifies the reporter, volume, and page number where the case is found in print and is used to retrieve the case online.
  • For example, to retrieve Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court, you can type either 4 Cal. 5th 903 or 416 P.3d 1 into the main search box of Nexis Uni or Google Scholar and then hit enter. 
  • The print reporter serves as a unique identifier for the case, allowing you to distinguish between different cases with the same name (e.g., People v. Lee) and different decisions within the same litigation.
• Additionally, the reporter citation allows you to identify what court decided the case.
  • For example, the official Cal. reporter only publishes California Supreme Court Cases and the official Cal. App. reporter only publishes California Courts of Appeal cases.
  • Any missing details are filled in by the date parenthetical. For example, the unofficial P. reporter publishes cases from state supreme courts and courts of appeals throughout the Pacific region, so P.3d (Cal. 2020) is used to identify a California Supreme Court case. Similarly, the unofficial Cal. Rptr. publishes cases from both the California Supreme Court and the California Court of Appeal, so Cal. Rptr. 3d (Ct. App. 2020) is used to identify a California Court of Appeal case.

With time and practice, you'll learn to glance at a citation and instantly tell what court decided the case. Until then, here's a cheat sheet:

It's important to be able to recognize what court decided a case because, generally, only published decisions from higher courts in your jurisdiction are mandatory (binding) cases that must be followed by the court. All other cases are only persuasive- you can cite them but the court does not have to follow them.

Here are the basic rules to remember:

• Unpublished decisions are never binding and some courts prohibit citing them even as persuasive. In particular, California courts prohibit the citation of their unpublished decisions. (Cal. Rules of Court Rule 8.1115.) The U.S. Supreme Court requires federal courts of appeal to allow citation of all unpublished decisions issued in or after 2007. (FRAP 32.1.) However, many federal courts of appeals, including the Ninth Circuit, continue to prohibit citation of their unpublished decisions before 2007. (9th Cir. Rule 36-3.)
• Cases from higher courts in the same jurisdiction are always binding. Additionally, when applying another jurisdiction's law, courts will also generally follow decisions of that jurisdiction's supreme court and intermediate appeals court. For example:
  • Imagine that a defendant in Los Angeles Superior Court (a California state trial court) seeks to suppress evidence that was found through a search that she argues violated both the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution.
    • When deciding whether the search violated the California Constitution, the court must follow both California Supreme Court decisions and California Court of Appeal decisions.
    • When deciding whether the search violated the U.S. Constitution, the court must follow U.S. Supreme Court decisions and will almost always follow federal Court of Appeals decisions.
  • Imagine that a plaintiff sues his employer in the Central District of California (a federal trial court) for violations of both federal and California employment law.
    • When deciding whether the employer violated federal law, the court must follow both U.S. Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions.
    • When deciding whether the employer violated California law, the court must follow California Supreme Court decisions and will almost always follow California Court of Appeal decisions.
• Federal Court of Appeals decisions are only binding on lower courts within the same circuit. For example, federal trial courts in California are within the Ninth Circuit, while federal trial courts in New York are within the Second Circuit. Federal trial courts in California must follow decisions of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals but need not follow decisions of the Second Circuit, while federal trial courts in New York must follow decisions of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals but need not follow decisions of the Ninth Circuit. 
• Federal Court of Appeals decisions are also binding on equal courts within the same circuit. Each federal Court of Appeals has between 6 and 29 judges and each case is assigned to a random panel of 3 judges. That 3 judge panel's decision binds all future panels within the same circuit. It can only be overturned if an appellant successfully requests special review by a larger panel of judges from the circuit (limited en banc), a panel composed of all of the judges in the circuit (en banc), or the U.S. Supreme Court.

You can view a map of federal circuits here:

Many students get hung up on learning the nitty-gritty details of authority. The reality is that most practicing attorneys do not memorize the nitty-gritty details but instead work from a general sense of what cases are strongest to cite.

In general, the strongest decisions to cite when in federal court (or when applying federal law in state court) are, in order:

1. U.S. Supreme Court decisions: 1 U.S. 1 (2020) / 1 S. Ct. 1 (2020)
2. Decisions from the Court of Appeals for your circuit: E.g., 1 F.3d 1 (9th Cir. 2020)
3. Decisions from federal trial courts in your circuit: E.g., 1 F. Supp. 3d 1 (C.D. Cal. 2020)
4. Decisions from federal Courts of Appeals in other circuits: E.g., 1 F.3d 1 (2nd Cir. 2020)
5. Decisions from federal trial courts in other circuits: E.g., 1 F. Supp. 3d 1 (S.D.N.Y. 2020)

In general, the strongest decisions to cite when in California state court (or when applying California law in federal court) are, in order:

1. California Supreme Court decisions: 1 P.3d 1 (Cal. 2020) / 1 Cal. 5th 1 (2020)
2. California Court of Appeal decisions: 1 Cal. Rptr. 3d 1 (Ct. App. 2020) / 1 Cal. App. 5th 1 (2020)
3. California trial court decisions: 1 Cal. Rptr. 3d 1 (App. Dep’t Super. Ct. 2020) / 1 Cal. App. 5th Supp. 1 (2020)

It is OK to cite cases from trial courts, cases from other jurisdictions, and (if the court rules allow it) unpublished decisions! However, generally, you should have a specific reason for doing so, such as because it is one of the only cases to have considered a legal issue or because it is especially factually similar to your case.

The following visuals and cheat sheets may make it easier to understand case authority:

The following handout provides more details on case citation and publication:

Many students also find the following short articles helpful for understanding case authority: