Finding a Case 

The Downtown Campus Library continues to update print copies of the United States Reports, Supreme Court Reporter, Federal Reporter 3d and Federal Supplement 2d.  Recent Supreme Court opinions are available online, free of charge, at the Supreme Court website.  Chicago-Kent students and faculty may also access full-text pdf versions of all cases found in these reporters, as well as in all regional reporters, on Westlaw.  Full text opinions are also available on Lexis.   

DTC students, faculty, and staff without Westlaw access can read full text opinions in LexisNexis Academic.  For more information, go to Find a Case in LexisNexis Academic.  

Cook County Law Library (50 W. Washington St., 29th Floor) continues to update print reporters for most jurisdictions.

If you have a case citation, you can use it to locate the case in the library.   Cases from state and federal courts are cited using the same basic pattern.  The elements of a case citation are:

Court decisions are published in books called case reporters.  In our library, reporters can be found in the following locations:

• Supreme Court [S. Ct. and L. Ed./L. Ed. 2d]: 9th floor (KF 101); U.S. Reports [U.S.] is located on the 7th floor
• Federal Supplement [F. Supp./F. Supp. 2d] and Federal Reporter [F./F.2d/F.3d]: 9th floor (KF 105)
• Regional reporters (updated to 2009): 9th floor (KF 105)
• State reporters (except Illinois) (updated to 2009): 6th floor (KFA-KFW)
• Illinois reporters: 10th floor Illinois Reading Room (KFI 1245)

For more information about which reporters to use for specific jurisdictions, or for the abbreviations most commonly used in case citations, or for how to find a reporter in the Library when all you have is the reporter's abbreviation, go to Which Reporter Should I Use?

If you do not have a case citation, but know at least the case name and jurisdiction, you can use the Digests to find your case. Each set of digests includes a Table of Cases, in which you can find the case citation. If the case is recent, be sure to check the pocket part or any cumulative supplements as well.

For example, if you were looking for the Nebraska case In re Adoption of McCauley, you could look in the North Western Digest 2d and find the citation under McCauley: 

Now you know that you can find the case in the 131st volume of the North Western Reporter, 2d Series.  Other information, such as where to find the case in the official state case reporter and the West topics and key numbers, is also provided. 

For more information about which digests or reporters to use for specific jurisdictions, go to Which Reporter Should I Use?

For information about how to use digests to find cases by topic, go to Find by Topic in Print.