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Court Cases

Legal Encyclopedias for finding cases by topic:

Each of these sources describes, summarizes and analyzes the law and provides citations to cases and law review articles. They are useful for gaining a general overview of a topic as well as an understanding of sensitive, controversial, or incongruous decisions.
 

American Jurisprudence (Am Jur) [Westlaw Next]
—Describes and provides overview of federal law

 

 

American Law Reports (ALR) [Westlaw Next]
—Analyzes cases with similar fact patterns

 

 

California Jurisprudence (Cal Jur)
—Describes and provides overview of California Law

  McH Ref Law KFC 80 .C29


Note: These sources may provide more cases than you need. However, read the introduction to your topic to gain an overview of the subject.

Related resources:

A Practical Companion To The Constitution
—how the supreme court has ruled on issues from abortion to zoning.

  McH Ref LawKF 4548 .L54 1999
Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court decisions.
 
  McH Ref KF 4548 .O97 1999 or online
Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Citations
—reference guide for attorneys, legal secretaries, paralegals, and law students.
 
  McH Ref Desk KF246 .P73 2001
Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court
—(Table of Cases in vol. 2)
  McH Ref JK 1571 .C65 2004