In the United States, there is the federal court system, the District of Columbia court system, fifty state court systems and numerous tribal court systems. In the federal system, the United States District Courts conduct trials, while the United States Courts of Appeals hear appeals from District Courts' trial cases. The federal "court of last resort" is the United States Supreme Court, which hears appeals from the Courts of Appeals. Many state court systems have similar three-tier systems with trial courts, intermediate appeals courts, and a court of last resort. South Dakota, however, has a two-tier system of trial, or "circuit," courts, with appeals to the South Dakota Supreme Court.
The most efficient method of locating cases on a topic is to find case "citations" in legal encyclopedias, law reviews and law journals, and statutory annotations. Court opinions, or "cases," are published chronologically in series of books known as "reporters."
A case citation will look like this:
| Volume | Reporter | 1st page of the case | |
| 388 | U.S. | 1 | |
| 770 | F.3d | 719 | |
| 820 | N.W.2d | 136 | |
Reporters - Courts
U.S. = Supreme Court
F.2d or F.3d = Federal Courts of Appeals
F. Supp. or F. Supp. 2d = Federal District Courts
N.W.2d = State courts in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin
A complete case citation includes the case name, all reporters where the case appears, court, and year:
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967).
For more information on reading case citations, please refer to "Reading Legal Citations."
LexisNexis Academic Universe is a USD database containing primary and secondary legal sources. Click on the arrow by "Search by Content Type" to open a drop-down box. Choose one of the categories under "Legal." The legal encyclopedia, American Jurisprudence 2d, is located under Legal Reference. Additional legal sources can be found through the "Source Directory" at the top of the page. Click "Browse." The folders labeled "Administrative Materials and Regulations," "Legislation, Statutes and Codes," and "Treaties and International Agreements" contain many additional resources.
