Using Lexis, Westlaw & Bloomberg Law

Shepard's is the citation service offered through Lexis. Shepard's relies on a variety of symbols to act as visual cues regarding the status of a cases, statutes, or regulations. Below are explanations of what each symbols means (as set forth by Lexis):

Additional information about Shepard's on Lexis is available in the Shepard's Signal Indicators and Treatments brochure.

There are a few ways to locate secondary sources in Lexis Advance. If you know the name of the resource you're looking for, you can start typing it in the main search box on the home page and it will show up as an option in the drop-down menu. For example, if you want to find the Moore's Federal Practice, you can start typing the title into the box and Lexis Advance will suggest relevant results you can select:

You can also locate and search secondary sources by going to the "Secondary Sources" link under the "Content Type" tab.

Once you are in the secondary sources database, you can further refine your search by selecting a particular type of content, state, or practice area under to focus on.

As described in our Secondary Sources research guide, it is generally a good idea to start with a secondary source when researching a topic as they will often identify important cases for you. If, however, you do want to run a search directly for cases in Lexis, there are a few ways to do so efficiently. If you know the name or citation of the case you are looking for, you can start typing it in the main search bar and click through the results using the dropdown menu.

If you don't know the name or citation of a particular case, however, it’s not efficient to run a search from the main case law search box because that may lead to an overwhelming number of results.

Instead, start by narrowing by content type and jurisdiction, if possible. To do so, you can either click on the links on the main cases page or you can click on the boxes labeled "All Categories" and "All Jurisdictions/court" by the search bar and select what you want from the screens that pop up. You can also select "Cases" under the content type tab and narrow jurisdiction or practice area there.

If you know the popular name or citation of the statute you are looking for, you can start typing it in the main search bar and click through the suggested results using using the dropdown menu.

If you don't know the popular name or citation of a particular statute, however, it’s not efficient to run a search from the main statutes and court rules search box because that may lead to an overwhelming number of results.

Instead, start by narrowing by content type and jurisdiction, if possible. To do so, you can either click on the links on the main cases page or you can click on the boxes labeled "All Categories" and "All Jurisdictions/court" by the search bar and select what you want from the screens that pop up. You can also select "Statutes & Legislation" under the content type tab and narrow jurisdiction or practice area there.

You can find all of the Lexis training materials here: