Case Law

"Case law, also known as precedent or common law, is the body of prior judicial decisions that guide judges deciding issues before them. Depending on the relationship between the deciding court and the precedent, case law may be binding or merely persuasive. For example, a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is binding on all federal district courts within the Fifth Circuit, but a court sitting in California (whether a federal or state court) is not strictly bound to follow the Fifth Circuit’s prior decision. Similarly, a decision by one district court in New York is not binding on another district court, but the original court’s reasoning might help guide the second court in reaching its decision. Decisions by the US Supreme Court are binding on all federal and state courts" (Justia, n.d.). 

Finding Cases in Nexis Uni

1. In NexisUni, under What are you interested in? select Cases
2. Under Which jurisdiction? select Federal Cases or State Cases
   • Federal and State cases must be searched separately. If you select State Cases, you will be prompted to enter a state 
3. Under Search in all Cases for, enter keywords for the subject you are researching. Example: "search warrant"
   • Search tip: Use quotation marks to tell the database to look for search terms of two or more words as a phrase where they appear right next to one another
4. Click All Dates to select a publication date range or leave it set to All Dates

1. Click Search
2. Use the limiters on the left side of the screen to limit the results list by Timeline, Court, etc.

Finding Cases and Opinion Summaries on the Open Web