Find a Case by Party Name

Sometimes you may have a specific case that you are looking for, and all you know is the name. This may be

• the full or abbreviated official name (e.g., Marbury vs. Madison),
  
• the name of just one of the parties in the case—usually the defendant (e.g., the “Dred Scott” decision),
  
• or maybe a popular name the case has come to be known by (e.g., the “Flag Burning” case) that doesn’t refer directly to either party.

Case Name

Table of Cases in West's Digests

The West's Digests (Decennial Digest, General Digest, Texas Digest) contain a set of volumes at the end called “Table of Cases.” These list the cases that are indexed in the respective digest.

1. Find the "Table of Cases" volume(s), usually at the end of the digest set. These tables are arranged alphabetically, A to Z, by name of case.
2. Look alphabetically for the case name. You find the correct case name and a full citation, as well as key words and key numbers to help you find similar cases in the main volumes of the digest.
   

Campus Research

This West online product, available to the UNT community, offers perhaps the quickest way to locate an opinion when you know the name of the case.

1. From the Libraries home page, select Electronic Resources/C/Campus Research
2. Select the Law tab to get into the legal portion of the database.
3. On the left side of the screen, enter the party names in the box labeled "Find a Document by title." You can enter just the last name—you don't have to enter the entire name of the party. You can enter just one name if you wish—you don’t have to enter a name in each box.
   
4. Click the blue "Go" button next to the box.

LexisNexis™ Academic

LexisNexis™ Academic offers an alternative way to retrieve a case when you know the citation. 

1. From the Libraries home page, select Electronic Resources/L/LexisNexis Academic
2. Under "Look up a Legal Case," enter the names of the parties in the "by Parties" box. You can enter just the last name—you don't have to enter the entire name of the party. You can enter just one name if you wish—you don’t have to enter a name in each box.
3. Click the blue "Go" button.

Party Name

If you know only the name of one or both of the parties involved, follow the same steps as you would for using the case name as outlined above.

Defendant-Plaintiff Tables

If you only know the defendant’s name, or you don’t know which party is the plaintiff and which is the defendant, you can try the Defendant-Plaintiff tables in the West’s Digests, which list cases in alphabetical order with the defendant’s name first.

The most recent West’s Digests have abandoned use of separate Defendant-Plaintiff tables. Instead, each defendant is listed in the Table of Cases, cross-referenced to the correct name of the case.

Popular Name

Lawyers and the public often refer to a case by a popular name, for example, “the Right to Die Case” or the “Dred Scott Decision,” rather than the official  title of the case. You can use a popular name index to locate a case by its popular name.

Shepard’s Acts and Cases by Popular Names 
KF90.S52 1999 (at Documents Service Desk)

This reference work provides full citations to cases, listed alphabetically by the popular names lawyers and the public use to refer to them. Your case must be of considerable importance to appear here. Some state cases of importance are listed, but most of the included cases are federal.

Popular Name Table in West’s Digests

Each West’s Digest, as well as each West’s case reporter, includes a popular name table listing in alphabetical order the cases in that volume or set that are known by a popular name. This method is most effective if you know the jurisdiction and/or the approximate date of the case.

Internet Resources

If a case is especially well-known or currently in the news, you can sometimes enter its popular name in a search engine such as Google and locate a copy of the decision. This is a useful way for locating very recent cases. Once you have identified a case in this way, it is best to locate a the opinion as published in Lexis or in one of the official or commercial reporters, since online sources are not always reliable.