Reporters are publications that report court cases. The different reporters report cases from particular courts, e.g., Federal Supplement reports federal district court cases. Appellate state court cases are published in "regional" reporters; each state is assigned to a particular region. There also are or have been individual state reporters. In addition, U.S. Supreme Court cases have been published in more than one reporter, e.g., the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (L. Ed.), Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.) and U.S. Reports (U.S.).
When the same case is available in more than one publication, the citations to the other publications are called parallel citations.
Briefs filed for U.S. Supreme Court cases are available from Westlaw Campus Research since 1870 (selected) and FindLaw (1999-2007?). An analysis of cases and a listing of briefs filed is provided by the American Bar Association's Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases (2004/2005 term-previous term; access to the current term requires a subscription except for one featured case each month for use in classrooms).
The Westlaw Campus Research database is the primary tool for finding federal and state cases at UW-Whitewater, but some other resources also are listed below. Use the search tips on the "Using Westlaw Campus Research" tab for keyword searching. Use options on the left of search results to search within the results, or to limit by date, court, etc. See "Legal Research: A Guide to Case Law" from the Library of Congress for additional information about case law research.
Citations, names of parties to cases, titles of articles or legislation, and keywords can be entered into the main Westlaw Campus Research search box, but results may include all types of legal authority. The jurisdiction to be searched shows to the right of the search box, which defaults to All Federal; click to change or add. For international materials, first choose "International Materials" from the Browse menu below the search box.
To limit search results to cases, first click Cases on the browse menu below the search box, and make jurisdiction selections if desired. "Cases" will appear to the left of the search box.
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Also available in Andersen Library: U.S. Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition to v.130 L.Ed. 2d [1995] (2nd-floor Law Collection), and U.S. Reports from v. 375 U.S. [1963] (1st-floor Federal Documents Collection, Ju 6.8:).
Also available in Andersen Library: Federal Reporter to v.160 F.3d [1998] (2nd-floor Law Collection)
Cases from appellate-level courts in all states are available in Westlaw too, as well as from most state court websites. See the Wisconsin Law webpage from the Wisconsin State Law Library for information about courts in Wisconsin.
Annotations in statutes or codes may contain citations to court cases that have interpreted the law. Go to Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations. Click "Statutes & Annotations" or use the search box at the top right corner to go to the desired section of the statutes. Below is an example (19.35(7)(c)).
