Legal Research

LexisNexis Sources

By Diane Murley

To conduct your LexisNexis research as efficiently and economically as possible, you must choose the right source to search. LexisNexis has thousands of sources, and the best source for your search may not be included in the options listed on the first screen.

For example, if you are looking for cases from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, two possible sources are displayed on the first screen: “Federal & State Cases, Combined” and “Federal Cases, Combined.” But combined sources are huge and will retrieve many documents you don’t want, including cases from all the other circuits. In practice, it is also more expensive to search a combined source than smaller sources.

To see all case sources, follow the “View more sources” link at the bottom of the Cases - U.S. list, then “U.S. Courts of Appeals - By Circuit.”

By searching “9th Circuit - US Court of Appeals Cases & Bankruptcy Appellate Panel” instead of one of the combined sources from the front page, you will save time and money. You will limit your search results to the 9th Circuit without having to run a complex search, and you won’t have to sort through a list of cases from other circuits.

Full post as published by Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).