HOW TO SHEPARDIZE A CASE

Shepard's Citations are located on the main floor of the College Library in the Paralegal Area. In the College's library, Shepard's Citators are placed after the set to which it pertains (for example, Shepard's U.S. Citations Case Edition are found directly after the Supreme Court Reporters).

A. Locating Shepard's Case Citations

1. Find the appropriate set of volumes for your citation (i.e., for Supreme Court cases, use Shepard's U.S. Citations, Case Edition; for Federal Reporter cases, use Shepard's Federal Citations for Federal Reporter; for Federal Supplement cases, use Shepard's Federal Citations for Federal Supplement; for Pennsylvania cases, use Shepard's Pennsylvania Citations, Case & Statute Edition). The set usually consists of bound volumes and paper supplements.
2. Find the most recent pamphlet of the set. The front cover will indicate what volumes are included in the set under the heading "What Your Library Should Contain."
3. Gather all of the volumes (including supplements!) that contain your citation.
4. To find your citation turn to the page that has the applicable volume number for your reporter on that page. Make sure that you are in the correct section; a single volume of Shepard's may contain citations to more than one reporter.
5. Find citations to your case by locating the volume and page number that correspond to your citation. Volume numbers appear in bold type at the top corner of each page; the page numbers will also be in bold and are set off by dashes in the columns.

B. Understanding the Order of Citations

Parallel Citations
1. Parallel citations appear in parentheses the first time the case is cited and will not appear in subsequent volumes.
2. If a parallel citation was not available at the time of Shepard's publication, it will appear in the next edition.
3. If there is no parallel cite in any of the volumes, then there is no parallel source.
4. Shepard's lists parallel cites to regional, state AND topical reporters.

Case History
1. Case histories indicating prior or subsequent proceedings in the same case appear immediately after the parallel cite.
2. History citations will always have an identifying abbreviation letter preceding the references. See Section C in this guide for an explanation of the abbreviation symbols.

Treatment of Case
1. This section is arranged by court. Decisions in your case's jurisdiction always appear first.
2. Within the listing for each reporter, citations are listed in chronological order. There is no ranking by importance or effect on the cited case.
3. Citations to cases from other jurisdictions generally follow the cases of the home jurisdiction, although this section is sometimes limited to Federal cases.
4. In general, cases from other states appear only in the Shepard's for regional reporters and not for state reporters.

Secondary Materials
1. Shepard's Citators include citations from secondary sources or from annotations that have cited your case.
2. State Citators include references to:
   - American Bar Association Journal
   - Major national law reviews
   - Bar journals and law reviews published in the same state as the jurisdiction covered by a particular Shepard's
   
3. Shepard's Federal Citators do NOT include references to law reviews.
4. Annotations in American Law Reports (ALR) are included among citing sources in state and federal Shepard's.
5. Some state Shepard's include references to Attorney General opinions.
6. Shepard's Citators may include references to legal treatises published by Shepards/McGraw-Hill.

1. Shepard's uses unique abbreviations in its citation lists. To interpret these abbreviations, turn to the Table of Abbreviations in the front of each Shepard's volume.
2. The letter appearing before a citation in the listing indicates how the case was treated by a subsequent proceeding or by a decision from another court. Explanations of these letters appear in the front of the bound volumes under "Abbreviations-Analysis" and on the inside of the front cover of the paper supplements.
3. The small raised number (superscript) to the immediate right of the reporter abbreviation is a headnote number referring to a headnote from your case. This feature allows you to go directly to references that discuss a particular issue in your case.
4. Annotation references in Shepard's end with the letter "n" and supplemental annotation references with the letter "s".

D. Using Westlaw to Shepardize a Case

1. To Shepardize a case in Westlaw, enter your citation in the Key Cite box.
2. This online service also offers ways of updating Shepards.