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Lexis®
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Product Features
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Legal Search
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When you Shepardize® a citation, the Shepard's® Citation Service displays the results in 4 categories:
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Appellate History - includes prior and subsequent appellate history cases related to the case you Shepardized.
Note: For statutes and administrative codes, the service labels the link History. - Citing Decisions - includes federal and state court cases and agencies that cite to the citation you Shepardized. This is the default tab.
- Other Citing Sources - includes non-case citing references, like statutes, regulations, law reviews, Restatements, treatises, briefs, motions, and other secondary sources.
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Table of Authorities - includes a list of cases cited by the case you ShepardizedTM.
Note: This is not available when Shepardizing statutes and administrative codes
The category that generates the Shepard’s Signal™ displays the Shepard's Signal on the left side of the page. For example, if a citing decision gives the citation you Shepardized a yellow caution signal, the service includes the yellow triangle on the Citing Decisions tab. The Shepard's reports for statutes, constitutions, and court rules have unique characteristics. For more information, see Shepard's Reports for Statutes, Regulations, Court Rules, and Constitutions.
The service also provides other tools to help you navigate through a {Shepards} report. These tools are especially helpful for lengthy Shepard's reports that contain many citing decisions or numerous other citing sources.
The following information includes the navigation tools to help you easily review a Shepard's report. For information about tools that help you analyze the report, see Shepard's Tools .
Full, Title, and Grid Views
The Full view includes Reason for Shepard's Signal? text or Teaser Text with links to the pinpoint cite where the court cites the document for each citing decision:
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Reason for Shepard's Signal? text is the relevant passage in the citing decision that most strongly influences the generation of the Shepard's® signal. If the citing decision is not the reason for the signal and the signal is generated by the subsequent history, Teaser Text appears.
Note: Explanatory text is available when the Reason for Shepard's Signal? is a subsequent case in the appellate history that generates a negative signal. You do not see that text if the subsequent case generates a positive signal. - Teaser Text is portion of the text of the citing reference that shows the language surrounding the first embedded reference to the document you Shepardized. The text acts as a link to the citing case. When you click the link, the citing document opens in a new tab at the first reference to the document. The service highlights the embedded citations in the citing reference document the same way the service highlights them when you click the citing document name or citation link.
The Title view displays the case information without the Reason for Shepard's Signal? or Teaser Text language.
The Grid view is a graphical depiction of the citing decisions of the case you Shepardized. For more information, see Shepard's Tools .
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Shepard's Signals on Citing Decisions
Citing Decisions signals show you the Shepard's Signal indicator for the citing decisions or cited decisions included in the Shepard's report. You can click the signal to retrieve the Shepard's report for that document.
Shepard's includes these signals in cases on the Appellate History, Citing Decisions, and Table of Authorities tabs. The service does not include signals in citing statutes or other documents on the Other Citing Sources tab.
Shepard's includes the signal on a delivered Shepard's report, if you saw it on your screen when you requested the delivery. Any signal you see on a delivered report reflects the signal at the time you delivered the report.
When you rest your pointer over the signal, you see a description of the midline signal. The following list includes the descriptions of the midline signals:
- Red (stop sign) - Warning: Negative treatment is indicated. Click to Shepardize®
- Orange (box with Q) - Questioned: Validity questioned by citing refs. Click to Shepardize®
- Yellow (triangle) - Caution: Possible negative treatment. Click to Shepardize®
- Green (diamond) - Positive treatment is indicated. Click to Shepardize®
- Blue A (circle) - Citing Refs. With analysis available. Click to Shepardize®
- Blue I (circle) - Citation information available. Click to Shepardize®
Analysis Phrase Definitions
When you view a Shepard's report, click any analysis phrase, such as Reversed by or Followed by. The service opens a window with the definition of the phrase and the Shepard's Signal indicator for the phrase.
For information about the editorial phrases, see Shepard's Editorial Phrases and Citation Formats.
Analysis and Content Filters
The Analysis and Content filters are under Narrow by on the Shepard's report. The Analysis filter is available for the Citing Decisions and Table of Authorities category and the Content filter is available for the Other Citing Sources category.
Analysis Filter
The Analysis filter restricts the Shepard's report by the editorial analysis phrases assigned to all citing decisions. Analysis restrictions are grouped by the Shepard's signal starting with the most negative treatment, if any. The overall Analysis that generated the Shepard's Signal for the citation you Shepardized is listed first. Specific editorial phrases are indented under the Shepard's signal analysis and include the number of the citing references that match that editorial phrase.
Click on any of the Analysis links to restrict or filter the report to those citing decisions.
When you filter a Shepard's report using the Analysis and Headnote filters, the report filters to Citing Decisions with the selected analysis and that cite to the proposition in the selected Headnote. For example, if you filter the Shepard's report for 436 U.S. 49 by HN7, the Narrow by filter shows 9 for the Distinguished by Analysis (as of 8/19/2022). Those 9 Citing Decisions cite to the proposition in HN7 but can distinguish the case for any proposition in the case, not just the proposition in HN7.
When you filter a Shepard's report by Analysis and Headnote by clicking a Shepard's Signal indicator while viewing a headnote, the report filters only to Citing Decisions with the selected analysis within the context of the selected Headnote. For example, when you click the Caution signal under HN7 while viewing 436 U.S. 49 by HN7, you only get 3 Citing Decisions (as of 8/19/2022). Of the Citing Decisions that distinguished 436 U.S. 49, only 3 Citing Decisions did so for the proposition in HN7.
Note: Because a Citing Decision can apply multiple types of analysis, the numbers reflected in the Analysis filter may not match the total number of Citing Decisions.
Content Filter
The Content filter restricts the Shepard's report by the type of content, other than cases, that cite to the citation you Shepardized. For example, the Content filter lists Statutes, Law Reviews, Treatises, Court Filings, etc.
Click on any of the Content links to restrict or filter the report to those other sources.
[ Top ]Court Filter
The Court filter restricts the Shepard's report to a specific court or jurisdiction. This filter is available only under Citing Decisions.
Under Court there are the total number of Federal Court cases followed by the number of State Court cases by State:
- Under Federal Courts, the United States Supreme Court is first followed by Circuits. Each Circuit includes the Court of Appeals and all District courts in that Circuit. Click on a Circuit if you want to restrict to the courts in that circuit. Click Select multiple if you want to filter on multiple federal courts.
- Under State Courts, each state represented in the report display in alphabetical order. Click on a state if you want to restrict to the courts in that state. Click Select multiple if you want to filter on multiple state courts.
Clicking on any of the Court links will restrict or filter the report to only citing decisions from that court.
[ Top ]Publication Status Filter
The Publication Status filter only appears in the Shepard's reports for cases.
You can filter your Citing Decisions using the Publication Status filter. You can choose between Reported and Unreported. If your Citing Decisions are from California state courts only, your choices are Published and Unreported. For more information about what unreported and unpublished mean, see What is the Difference Between Unpublished and Unreported Cases?.
When you view a results list that has cases from multiple jurisdictions including California state, you see the choices Reported and Unreported. Selecting Reported also retrieves California published cases. Selecting Unreported also retrieves California unpublished cases.
Even though Shepard's occasionally lists cases that are not available online, the filter only applies to cases that are available on the LexisNexis services. The filter does not apply to agency decisions. The Publication Status in Shepard's should mirror the status for a case in search results.
Discussion Filter
The Discussion filter restricts the Shepard's report to the depth of discussion the citing decision provides on the citation you Shepardized . This filter is available only under Citing Decisions.
For more information about the Depth of Discussion, see the information available in Shepard's Tools .
[ Top ]Headnotes Filter
Headnotes are identifications of points of law written by the publisher of the case. The Headnote filter is useful when you want to find additional case law that cites your opinion for a proposition of law stated in a headnote in your version of the case. The Headnote filter restricts the report by the specific LexisNexis® Headnote.
Headnotes are listed by number of citing references from most to least. Click on any of the HN links to restrict or filter the report to those citing decisions for that LexisNexis Headnote.Shepardize - Narrow by this Headnote is also available for headnotes in the full text of a case.
When you click Shepardize - Narrow by this Headnote, the service automatically Shepardizes the case and directs you to the Citing Decisions category of the Shepard's report filtered by the selected headnote. If there are no citing decision for the headnote, the service Shepardizes the citation and directs you to the Citing Decisions category with the following note: There are no Citing Decisions matching the filter you applied.
When you filter a Shepard's report using the Analysis and Headnote filters, the report filters to Citing Decisions with the selected analysis and that cite to the proposition in the selected Headnote. For example, if you filter the Shepard's report for 436 U.S. 49 by HN7, the Narrow by filter shows 9 for the Distinguished by Analysis (as of 8/19/2022). Those 9 Citing Decisions cite to the proposition in HN7 but can distinguish the case for any proposition in the case, not just the proposition in HN7.
When you filter a Shepard's report by Analysis and Headnote by clicking a Shepard's Signal indicator while viewing a headnote, the report filters only to Citing Decisions with the selected analysis within the context of the selected Headnote. For example, when you click the Caution signal under HN7 while viewing 436 U.S. 49 by HN7, you only get 3 Citing Decisions (as of 8/19/2022). Of the Citing Decisions that distinguished 436 U.S. 49, only 3 Citing Decisions did so for the proposition in HN7.
Search Within Results
The Search Within Results filter restricts the Shepard's report to additional search terms you enter to narrow the list of citing decisions. Search Within Results searches are run as terms and connectors searches and the terms appear in the teaser paragraph on the results list. If you click on any of the terms in the teaser paragraph, the system directs you to the first instance in which the term appears in the case. You can use segments in your Search Within Results searches.
For extremely large reports, use Narrow by filters to limit the results to less than 10,000 references before you use the Search Within Results option.
Shepard's Search Within Results does not search through the copyright information on documents. This text might be searchable through a regular search and Search Within Results, but it is not searchable with the Shepard's Search Within Results feature.
Note: You cannot start a Search Within Results search with the AND NOT connector.
Navigating Terms
You can use the Term Navigation feature to view the where the terms appear in the case. You can choose to view all terms or select individual terms. These terms are the terms you search for using the Search within Results feature.[ Top ]
Timeline Filter
The Timeline filter restricts the Shepard's report by the specific year or range of years.
There are two ways to restrict your results to a particular date or range of dates using the Timeline filter:
- Use your mouse to move either of the sliders to the left or right until the date range you want is displayed.
- Enter the specific date you want to restrict by (i.e. mm/dd/yyyy).
Table of Authorities
You can view a Table of Authorities when you retrieve a Shepard's report.
The Table of Authorities provides an at-a-glance analysis of the cited references within a case and links to in-depth analyses of these underpinnings, which includes the legal authorities cited in the case as the basis or support of your case.The Table of Authorities lists all the recognized cases cited within your case. A Table of Authorities functions like the reverse of a Shepard's report because the Table of Authorities is a list of cases your case cites and a Shepard's report lists the cases that cite to your case or the document you Shepardized .
Each cited reference in the Table of Authorities includes the following information:
- The analysis phrase of how your document, the Shepardized opinion or law review article, treats the cited case
- The analysis phrase indicator for the analysis phrase
- The Shepard's Signal indicator of the cited case
When you retrieve the Table of Authorities for a Shepardized case, click the First Ref link to open the Shepardized case at the first reference to the cited case. You can also use the Navigate feature in the full text document to go to subsequent references.
You can sort the Table of Authorities report by Court (highest-lowest) or Analysis (red-blue).
Note: When you sort by Analysis, the results are organized in the following order of the analysis phrase indicator:
- Red (Warning)
- Orange (Questions)
- Yellow (Caution)
- Green (Positive)
- Blue (Neutral)
- Light Blue (No phrase exists)
Sorting a Shepard's Report
Use Sort by to sort the Shepard's report by one of the following:
- Court (highest-lowest)
Note: This is the default sort order. - Discussion (high-low)
- Date (newest-oldest)
- Analysis (red-blue)
Navigating across Citing Documents
When you access a document in a Shepard’s report for a case, you have the ability to navigate among the documents in the report by clicking the arrows at the top right of the documents. This includes the ability to navigate through documents in different categories in the report such as the Appellate History and Citing Decisions. You can also return to the Shepard’s report by clicking Shepard's® report. This ability to navigate among documents in a report is only available in Shepard’s reports for cases.