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What is a Citator?

Citators help you determine what later authorities have cited your case and the history or treatment of your case in those later authorities. History refers to your case at a different stage of the proceedings, such as an appeal, rehearing, etc. Treatment refers to how your case has been cited by subsequent authorities.

In addition to providing history and treatment information, citators can also help you determine for which point of law those later authorities rely upon your case. Thus, you can eliminate authorities that are not relevant to the issue you are researching. Citators are also useful to locate law review articles and ALR annotations that cite and possibly discuss your case at length.

There are a number of citators available. Print citators published by Shepard's are available at the Pappas Law Library for the federal and Massachusetts courts, for selected other jurisdictions, and for selected topical areas. Online citators are primarily available with a subscription to LexisNexis (Shepards) or Westlaw (Keycite), and can be used to update most authorities. Both services also offer the same citators on a "pay as you go" basis for persons who do not have subscriptions.

Your choice between a print and online citator will depend on availability and cost considerations. Online citators are much easier to use as they do not require you to look in several different volumes to update your research. In addition, online citators provide substantial flexibility by allowing you to limit your results by jurisdiction, treatment, etc.

Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: August 2006