Shephardizing a Case or Law
Shephardizing a case or law allows you to determine the status of a particular case (overturned, reaffirmed, etc.). It lists the treatment of a legal proceeding (case or law) in subsequential cases and jurisdictions (whether a decision regarding a point of law was followed, distinguished, criticized, etc.). The term Shephardize originates from the Frank Shepard Company which originally provided this service in legal research.
Shephardizing a State Law
- Open NexisUni
- From the Menu dropdown at the top left, choose "All Sources"
- At the resulting screen, in the "Narrow By: Category" box at left, click "More" to view a full list of categories
- Choose/click "Statutes and Legislation"
- In the Jurisdiction box at left, click "More" to view a full list of states
- Choose/click a state
- From the results/options in the middle of the screen you will see MA - Annotated Laws of Massachusetts, or PA - Annotated Laws of Pennsylvania, or the respective state list of Annotated Laws for the state you chose (the terminology might vary from state to state)
- Click the corresponding table of contents icon at right for the Annotated Laws
- At the resulting screen, you can use the plus signs to browse to the appropriate part, title, chapter, and section of the annotated laws or you can use the search box to search by keywords for the appropriate section of the law
- One you have located the correct section of the law, locate and click the link at right to "Shephardize this document"
- The following screen will list citing cases in which the law was discussed
