Shepard's® Report Page

Your Shepard's® report is displayed in four (4) pages, accessed by clicking these links:

  1. Appellate History
  2. Citing Decisions
  3. Other Citing Sources
  4. Table of Authorities

All of the tabs display the word Shepard's, followed by the citation's signal, name, and other information above the tabs. Below the tabs is a statement as to whether or not there is any negative appellate history, as well as buttons to let you choose whether to view your results as a List or as a Map in Appellate, or as a Grid in Citing Decisions. See Map or Grid for more information about these options. Clicking the Show on map link from the List view focuses the resulting map on that specific item.

Use the pagination arrows and Items per page drop-down list to navigate through the results.

Appellate History

This page provides the case's history in as many numeric listings as may be required.

Appellate History is presented in an "outline" format, where indentations are used to identify the direct relationships between the listed cases.

The search form is displayed at the top of your results so you can modify the terms, content, or topics you want to search, and run the search again.

ValueDescription
Appellate HistoryClick a linked case name to view that document in a separate tab.
CourtLists the court associated with each case.
DateLists the date for the case.

Citing Decisions

This page displays all of the citing decisions associated with this report.

ValueDescription
Narrow By

You can use the Narrow By pane to filter your report by a specific heading in the categories displayed. For example, you may want to view only a specific Analysis (such as Positive) or only documents from a certain court. To select several criteria in a category, select Select multiple.

You can filter your results by several criteria. For example, you may want to view only Caution Analysis items, within a specific Timeline, related to certain Headnotes.

To return to a previous results set after narrowing one or more times, select the Remove icon (Close level) next to your selections at the top of the Narrow By pane to close that version. When you have closed all the versions, your original results are displayed on the right side of the results view.

You can also return to your original results by selecting Clear.

AnalysisIndicates how the document has been discussed. For more information about the Analysis, select the icon or text to display a pop-up window. If you'd like still more detail, select the All Shepard's editorial phrases link.
CourtLists the court that rendered each decision.
Citing DecisionsLists the decisions, separated by court type (e.g., U.S. Supreme Court, 1st Circuit - Court of Appeals, etc.).
DiscussionIndicates the depth of discussion within a citing reference.
DateLists the date associated with each decision.

Other Citing Sources

This page displays all of the types listed in the heading associated with this report.

Types of information include: Citing Law Reviews, Treatises, Annotated Statutes, Court Documents, Restatements, and other Secondary Sources

ValueDescription
Narrow By

You can use the Narrow By pane to filter your report by a specific heading in the categories displayed. For example, you may want to view only a specific Analysis (such as Positive), only documents with certain content types, or look for Terms within results. To select several criteria in a category, select Select multiple.

To return to a previous results set after narrowing one or more times, select the Remove icon (Close level) next to your selections at the top of the Narrow By pane to close that version. When you have closed all the versions, your original results are displayed on the right side of the results view.

You can also return to your original results by selecting Clear.

Other Citing SourcesLists the information, separated by content type (e.g., Annotated Statutes, Law Reviews and Periodicals, etc.).
ContentLists the content type for each item.
DateLists the date associated with each item.
LegendClick to see a list of Shepard's Signal™ indicator icons and descriptions, Analysis indicators, and Depth of Discussion values.

Table of Authorities

The Shepard's table of authorities provides another tool to help you determine the validity and usefulness of a legal document for your legal research. The Shepard's table of authorities for a case tells you the subsequent treatment of each of the cited references supporting the case.

Clicking the case name link takes you to the cited case. Clicking the first reference link takes you to where your case first mentioned the cited case.

ValueDescription
Narrow By

You can use the Narrow By pane to filter your report by a specific heading in the categories displayed. For example, you may want to view only a specific Analysis (such as Positive) or only documents from a certain court. To select several criteria in a category, select Select multiple.

You can filter your results by several criteria. For example, you may want to view only Caution Analysis items, within a specific Timeline, related to certain Headnotes.

To return to a previous results set after narrowing one or more times, select the Remove icon (Close level) next to your selections at the top of the Narrow By pane to close that version. When you have closed all the versions, your original results are displayed on the right side of the results view.

You can also return to your original results by selecting Clear.

AnalysisIndicates how the document has been discussed.
Cited CasesLists the decisions, separated by court type (e.g., U.S. Supreme Court, 1st Circuit - Court of Appeals, etc.).
DiscussionIndicates the depth of discussion within a citing reference.
CourtLists the court that rendered each decision.
DateLists the date associated with each decision.

Shepard's Map

This option lets you view the relationships between the items in the Appellate History.

The following image provides an example of a Shepard's Map.

Example Map

ValueDescription
Print IconClick this icon to print the map.
LegendClick the drop-down list to view the legend for the map.
Display OptionsSelect which of these items you want to display on your map:
  • Labels
  • Prior history
  • Indirect history
  • Document number
Reset Highlighting IconOnce you have selected a node in the map, select this icon to return to the previous view.
Zoom In IconClick this icon to zoom to the citation you Shepardized™.
Expand Page IconClick this icon to expand the map to your entire page.
Reduce Page IconClick this icon to reduce the map to its original size.
Zoom In or Out WidgetClick the - to zoom out, or select the + to zoom in. You can also drag the bar.
Scroll BarsUse the vertical or horizontal scroll bars to move the map focus to another location.

Citing Decisions Grid

The complete set of citing decisions is depicted in the Citing decisions: Analysis By Court and Citing decisions: Analysis By Date grids. If you select an individual item (a cell, row label, or column label), the grid view will be closed and you will be taken to the List view and the Narrow By selections will be replaced with the item you selected.

The following image provides an example of a Citing Decisions Grid.

Example Grid

ValueDescription
Print IconClick this icon to choose whether you want to:
  • Print both Grids
  • Print the Citing Decisions: Analysis by Court grid
  • Print the Citing Decisions:Analysis by Date grid
Scroll BarsUse the horizontal scroll bars to move the grid focus to another location.
ValueDescription
LegendClick to display a legend for the Shepard's® report.

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