Case law comes from court decisions and have binding precedents. Cases are published in reporters, available both in print and online, and they can be searched by case citation, keyword, or name. A case citation consists of the case name, volume number of the reporter, abbreviated name of the reporter, page where the case begins, and year the case was decided.

     Federal Example:  Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 109 S. Ct. 3040 (1989)

     State Example:  Smith v. B&G Royalties, 469 P.3d 1206 (2020)

A list of abbreviations, publications of court decisions, and their corresponding jurisdictions is below. Jurisdiction is important because current cases with similar facts must follow the previous decisions from the original court or a higher court in that same jurisdiction.

Wyoming case law is published in the Pacific Reporter (1959 - present), the Wyoming Reporter, and Wyoming Reports (1870-1959). The George W. Hopper Law Library has complete sets of these resources. The Pacific Reporter publishes Wyoming case law chronologically and is now on its third series (3d). A reporter's series is included in its citation. When a new series is started, as in 2d. to 3d below, the volume number at the beginning of the series starts over at number one.

Goody v. Goody 939 P.2d 731 (from 1997)

Winney v. Jerup, 539 P.3d 77 (from 2023)

Sometimes a case is reported in more than one reporter.  In that case, there will be a parallel citation separated by a comma.

 Wyoming Example:  2023 WY 116, 539 P.3d 107

Out-of-State Example:   97 Wash. 2d 317, 646 P.2d 113

Usually the official state reporter citation appears first, followed by the regional reporter citation. Because our library does not have a complete collection of state reporters, use the regional reporter citation (646 P.2d 113 in the out-of-state example) to locate the case in our library. This is the best cite to use in most of the electronic resources as well.

Federal judicial structure: the Supreme Court at the top, then the Circuit Court of Appeals, and the District Courts, which are federal trial courts. The US Department of Justice provides a quick overview of the federal court system. This glossary from the US Courts can help with legal words and phrases.

Search Tips: If you have a case name or a citation, try putting "quotation marks" around them to get the most accurate results. Remove the quotation marks to expand your search if initial results are not relevant. If you are sure of the jurisdiction, or year, try filtering by those.

Supreme Court

United States Supreme Court decisions are freely available from these websites below, but not all years and decisions are going to be available from all websites:

• Cornell University's Legal Information Institute going back to 1990
• Google Scholar, click on "Case law" below the search box, then select "Supreme Court"
• Justia going back to 1791, search by date or topic
• Library of Congress, search by volume, authoring justice, or topic
• Oyez for free transcriptions and recordings of Supreme Court decisions
• supremecourt.gov, navigate to "Opinions"

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10th Circuit Court of Appeals

Wyoming is in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals at the federal level. Other states in the 10th Circuit include OK, KS, NM, CO, UT, and the portions of the Yellowstone National Park that extend into Montana and Idaho. A 10th Circuit Court's decision made about a case in Utah, for example, is going to be binding and considered precedent for federal cases in that jurisdiction, meaning in all of the 10th Circuit, including Wyoming. 

10th Circuit Court decisions are freely available from these resources, and again, not all years and decisions are available on all websites:

• 10th Circuit Court
• Court Listener, which allows for searching by a citation (also district and state)
• FindLaw
• Google Scholar, click on "Case law" below the search box, then select "10th Circuit"
• govinfo.gov, scroll down to United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit

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US District Court of Wyoming

Federal district, or trial, court decisions are also freely available, and again coverage varies by source. 

• Court Listener, in the "Select Jurisdictions" box, choose the Federal District tab and check "Wyoming"
• govinfo.gov, scroll down to United State District Court of Wyoming for decisions dating back to 2004
• US District Court of Wyoming, search back to 2004 by judge or year

The George W. Hopper Law Library has full sets of all federal case reporters: United States Reports, Supreme Court Reporter, Federal Reporter, and the Federal Supplement. For more information on print federal reporters, including citations and abbreviations, refer to the Case Law Citations and Print Publications box on this page.

Wyoming Supreme Court cases can be searched using the resources below:

• Casetext has Wyoming Supreme Court Cases dating back to 1896
• FindLaw, search Wyoming Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1980
• Google Scholar, choose "Case law" then "Wyoming" under "State courts"
• Wyoming Judicial Branch, Wyoming Supreme Court Opinions dating back to 2006

The George W. Hopper Law Library has full sets of the Wyoming Reporter and Wyoming Reports, where Wyoming Supreme Court decisions are published. These decisions are also published in the Pacific Reporter.

For information on all courts in Wyoming, visit the Wyoming Judicial Branch.

The law librarians recommend two databases for further legal research. Public patrons can access these databases via any campus computer. Because of licensing restrictions, commercial databases cannot be accessed by public patrons off campus.

• Westlaw Campus Research
• HeinOnline

Glossary created by the law librarians specifically for Wyoming residents

Glossary relating to lawmaking and legislation in Wyoming from the legislative services office

Wex, the comprehensive legal dictionary and encyclopedia from Cornell University's Legal Information Institute

The industry standard for legal terms and phrases is Black's Law Dictionary, which can be accessed at the library.

To learn more about which glossary can best answer your legal research question, visit the George W. Hopper Law Library's Access to Justice playlist on our YouTube Channel.

For additional legal research and resource questions and for all other law library questions, please contact us:

https://www.uwyo.edu/lawlib/

lawref@uwyo.edu

(307) 766-2210