Validating Cases Using Online Citators

This lesson teaches students how to use online citators to confirm that a case is still "good law"--meaning, the case still represents existing law. This lesson focuses on the online citators of Shepard's on Lexis+ and KeyCite on Westlaw. The lesson assumes students know how to use digests and how to create a research strategy.

Professors could assign this lesson to introduce citators or as a review at the end of a legal research course. But students should have a basic understanding of reading court cases before starting this lesson.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Define citators and explain what they do.
2. Identify the different parts of a Shepard's (Lexis+) and KeyCite (Westlaw) report.
3. Validate relevant cases using Shepard's and KeyCite.