Information Connection, 0216 WYBJ, Vol. 39 No. 1. 50

• Author: Amy Pearce
• Position: Vol. 39 1 Pg. 50

Information Connection

Vol. 39 No. 1 Pg. 50

Wyoming Bar Journal

February, 2016

Google Scholar Case Law A

Amy Pearce

As we continue to explore resources available to assist small firms or solo practitioners, this month we will explore Google Scholar. Google Scholar made its debut in 2004. It contains the full text or citations of scholarly literature from a variety of sources, including online journals and books. Although the actual size of Google Scholar is not known, some estimates put it at as large as 160 million documents.

A Case Law database, as well as legal articles, were added to Google Scholar in 2009. We will explore Case Law first. As the name implies, this database is case law only, and not other legal resources, such as statutes or regulations. Its contents include all U.S. appellate and state supreme courts since 1950, U.S. federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923, and U.S. Supreme Court since 1791, among many others.

Google Scholar does not make any search tips available, but thankfully there are librarians who have searched in it extensively and have developed their own set of search tips. To begin searching, go to https:// scholar.google.com/ and choose Case Law. If you are logged into your Google account, chances are you will see two options for jurisdiction already listed under the search box — Federal Courts and your state courts. To pick a different court, choose Select Courts to select which state or federal courts you wish to search. To do a more advanced search, click on the drop-down arrow in the search box on the main page. An advanced search box will appear. The following are some of the helpful search tips gleaned from other librarians: • To search for a judge's decisions, put the judges name in the author field.

• To search for a U.S. Supreme Court justice, select the court, then type the justices name and the word "delivered" into the find articles with all of the words box

• To search by party names, use the with the exact phrase box (use v.) and choose in the title of the article (this is the second option next to where my words occur)

• To search by citation, use the Bluebook citation in the exact phrase box

• To research how specific courts have cited to a case, first select the courts you want, enter the party names as a phrase in the with the exact phrase box. In the where my words occur drop-down...