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Westlaw tips for associates
July/August 2009
Searching for U.S. courts of appeals decisions: Easier than you think!
There are many ways to retrieve decisions of the U.S. courts of appeals—indispensable authority for all types of legal research.
When you need controlling authority, you're likely to get it from the U.S. courts of appeals—where the bulk of federal appellate decision making occurs. "Because relatively few courts of appeals decisions are reviewed in the Supreme Court, with rare exception, the federal circuit courts provide the functional equivalent of that Court's proverbial 'last word.'"*
Which databases are available?
There are more than 900,000 reported and unreported U.S. courts of appeals decisions on Westlaw, beginning with 1891. You can search the whole collection simultaneously, or you can search a U.S. courts of appeals case law database restricted to reported or unreported cases beginning with 1945, to cases decided prior to 1945, or to cases in a specific circuit or practice area. Representative databases include the following:
- U.S. Courts of Appeals Cases (CTA): Cases from the federal appellate courts. Coverage begins with 1891. For pre-1945 cases only, search the CTA-OLD database.
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Cases (CTA9): Cases from the federal appellate courts authoritative in the Ninth Circuit. Coverage begins with 1891.
- Federal Taxation–Courts of Appeals Cases (FTX-CTA): Cases from the federal appellate courts that relate to taxation by federal, state, or local governments. Coverage begins with 1891.
How do I search for cases that discuss a specific legal issue?
You can search any of these databases using the Terms and Connectors or the Natural Language search method. If you use the Terms and Connectors search method, you can restrict your search by topic–and exclude irrelevant documents that mention your terms in passing–by searching the synopsis (sy) and digest (di) fields for terms central to your issue, e.g.,
sy,di("personal jurisdiction" /p internet e-mail web-site).
Are there other ways to retrieve case law dealing with my issue?
Westlaw offers a variety of backdoor methods for retrieving relevant U.S. courts of appeals decisions. In the right situation, one of these methods may be much quicker than searching a database. These methods include the following:
- Search for Key Numbers tool: Click Key Numbers at the top of any Westlaw page.
- KeyCite® citing references: For U.S. courts of appeals cases that cite a specific statute or regulation, start by retrieving the statute or regulation. Then click Citing References on the Links tab.
- Links in secondary sources: A law review article, practice guide, or other secondary source on your issue is likely to contain links to related cases.
*Maxwell L. Stearns, Appellate Courts Inside and Out, 101 MICH. L. REV. 1764–65 (2003).
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