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Education : Education Law

Resources for courses in the College of Education

Introduction

This page provides information on doing law research as an education major.

Databases

Other Helpful Resources

Basic Case Citation

A case citation is a reference to where a case (also called a decision or an opinion ) is printed in a book. The citation can also be used to retrieve cases from Hein Online and Westlaw. A case citation consists of a volume number, an abbreviation of the title of the book or other item, and a page number. 

The precise format of a case citation depends on a number of factors, including the jurisdiction, court, and type of case. You should review the rest of this section on citing cases (and the relevant rules in The Bluebook) before trying to format a case citation for the first time. See the Georgetown Law Bluebook Guide for more information.

The basic format of a case citation is as follows:

Diagram of case citation. In order, left to right: case name. Volume number. Reporter abbreviation. 1st page of case. Pinpoint. Court. Decision year.

 

This box was adapted from the Georgetown Law Library Research Guide: https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/cases 

Tips

You need to find the case name, docket number, and citation number when doing research.

  • Google can be a great source for this information. 
  • One great website is Justica 
  • Case names are not unique which is why it is important to have a citation or docket number

Always add a period when doing a search with the case name.

  • Morse v. Frederick 

Websites