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Forensic Behavioral Health (HSV)

How to Find Specific Court Cases

The easiest way to find a specific court case and read the original legal language is to search Google Scholar.

Try searching for a couple of keywords or by case number.

Below the Google Scholar search box, you can select "Case Law" and select "United States" or a specific state.

After selecting these options, search for the court case, number, or names of those involved.


 

Additional sites that may be helpful for finding court cases and other information:

How to Find Court Cases in the News

High-profile court cases may be covered in local or national news. News coverage can give helpful context about the cases.

Try searching for the key defendant or prosecutors' names in the library's newspaper databases. Once in a database, you can also search for specific newspapers or regions to narrow your search.

Note that searching for news online may give you a paywall. If you find a news article but don't have access, reach out to a librarian for help finding it in the databases.

Tips for Finding News in Databases

Searching for newspaper articles in library databases is different from looking at news websites. 

Library databases contain the "paper of record," -- which may differ from the articles you see on the newspapers' websites. 

If you see an article online and want to find the full text in the library, you may need to search multiple ways:

  • Article title
  • Article author
  • Browse by date
  • Look at articles from several dates