What is legal precedent? What is stare decisis?
What is Shepard's? What is Keycite? What do those services do? Why are they important to legal research and legal precedent?
Answer
Court Help defines precedent as "Another case with similar issues of law and facts that is used as an example for the current case. Judges will generally “follow precedent” unless one of the parties can show that the other case was decided incorrectly or was different in some important way."
Shepard's and Keycite give the history and treatment of a case, law or regulation by later cases. They help you follow precedent. They are called citators or citation services. These services tell you if you are relying upon good law to make your point. These services tell you if a case has been overturned or criticized by later cases or if the case has been looked upon favorably.
You must use a citation service as part of your legal research because New York courts follow the doctrine of stare decisis.
You must come to a Public Access Law Library to use these services. Shepard's is on LexisAdvance and Keycite is on Westlaw..