Google Scholar for Legal Research

Google launched a “Legal opinions and journals” database in its Google Scholar search in November 2009. It allows attorneys to search for cases from the United States federal and state courts.

Free Online Legal Research

Google Scholar allows users to search and read opinions for U.S. state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, U.S. federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1791. In addition, it includes citations for cases cited by indexed opinions or journal articles which allows the users to find influential cases (usually older or international) which are not yet online or publicly available. Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate.

In “How to Use Google Scholar for Legal Research. Embedded links, citation excerpts, subsequent history and related documents make Google Scholar a valuable, free tool”, Geri L. Dreiling wrote:

“One distinct memory I have from the first semester of my first year of law school involves the endless hours spent shepardizing cases. The process of pulling dusty legal books off the shelf in the law library to check a decision’s subsequent citation history was a tedious, tiresome affair.

After mastering research the old-fashioned way, I was introduced to computer research. Representatives from the companies that provided the service led sessions demonstrating how legal research could be accomplished with keystrokes and mouse clicks.

Yet that training came with a caveat. My legal research and writing professor noted that while computerized legal research was free for law students, the same was not true for private practitioners. Young associates who unwittingly racked up a fat research bill were not looked upon favorably.

Fast forward to 2011 and the legal research landscape is almost unrecognizable. Appellate courts post the latest opinions on the Internet and competition has altered pricing structures dramatically since the early 1990s. Few lawyers of my generation would have imagined computerized legal research could be free.

But then along came Google. With Google Scholar, lawyers can conduct quick efficient research in a matter of clicks. In a recent App Friday post, California lawyer Michael Reiser explained, “Google Scholar literally saved me during a trial last December.” After his opposing counsel cited a new case that was adverse to his position, Reiser used his iPhone to access Google Scholar during a recess. After reading the decision, he successfully distinguished it from his case.

The content Google Scholar offers is summarized in the FAQ section.

Currently, Google Scholar allows you to search and read published opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791. In addition, it includes citations for cases cited by indexed opinions or journal articles which allows you to find influential cases (usually older or international) which are not yet online or publicly available.”

Background: Google Scholar™, Search Engines, Databases, and the Research Process

When a researcher has a paper or project for which he or she needs scholarly material such as journal articles, books, conference papers, technical reports, or dissertations, there are many options for searching for this type of information. The researcher, for example, can use resources such as journal article databases.

The researcher can use, instead, a search engine that searches the Internet. Google Scholar™ is an example of a search engine that searches specifically for scholarly literature. It is fast and easy to use and can lead the researcher to hundreds of relevant articles.

But before you use Google Scholar™, consider the following questions:

How does Google Scholar™ fit in to your research process?
When should you use Google Scholar™, and when should you use a different scholarly search engine?
When would it be more productive to use a database that the UCLA Library subscribes to for students, faculty, and staff?

The information in this Encyclopedia will help you explore answers to these questions. Below there are links directly to selected scholarly search engines, provides more information about each one, and offers exercises to help you decide if Google Scholar™ is right for your project.

You may find that Google Scholar™ gives you a quick overview of a topic and can quickly point you toward relevant material but that your results may not be as current or as comprehensive as you need. In that case, journal article databases can provide more focused subject area coverage and advanced search features that allow you to specifically concentrate on the aspects of the topic you really need.

Tips

Try multiple searches with different words or synonyms. Remember results are based on what the computer thinks you want.
The top results may not be the best results. Good legal research requires reading a number of opinions.
Use the “How Cited”tab to see other cases that may have altered, overturned or reinterpreted the decision.
The final outcome of the case is at the end of the opinion but it is important to read the entire decision to understand the court’s reasoning.

Reading case law

After selecting “legal opinions and journals” on Google’s Scholar’s home page and typing in the case name, some decisions are quickly available in the database.

Sometimes, it took only three days for a case posted on a Government judiciary’s website to appear in Google Scholar.

In the PDF version on some judiciary’s website, case law cited within the opinion is not hyperlinked. The reader cannot simply click on a case citation and jump to that decision.

Case decision linked by Google Scholar
The decision as well as a robust amount of information appears in the “How cited” tab. Click to enlarge the next screenshot with the search results in Google Scholar.

Shepardize Google Schoolar?

Extracted from researchfreedom:

Given the importance of properly using citators such as Shepard’s and KeyCite, it comes as no surprise that attorneys are still reticent to use free legal research tools such as Google Scholar to update research.

Exactly how good is Google Scholar at updating research? Is it a plausible alternative to Shepard’s and Keycite?

These questions are part of a larger research project that I’m currently working on. Ultimately, these are questions only the individual attorney can answer after studying the various research tools. However, if my preliminary research is any indication, it seems that Google Scholar is every bit as accurate as commercial citators for updating case law. (For a discussion of this function of Google Scholar, see this previous post.)

Google recently announced that it is now listing cases based upon the extent to which the cited case is discussed, which- as the Law Librarian Blog points out- brings Scholar even closer to KeyCite/Shepard’s functionality. Here’s the text explaining Google’s change, courtesy of the Law Librarian Blog:

Today [March 8], we are changing how we present citations to legal opinions. Now, instead of sorting the citing documents by their prominence, we sort them by the extent of discussion of the cited case. Opinions that discuss the cited case in detail are presented before ones that mention the case briefly. We indicate the extent of discussion visually and indicate opinions that discuss the cited case at length, that discuss it moderately and those that discuss it briefly. Opinions that don’t discuss the cited case are left unmarked.

Given this change, I decided to conduct a simple test of two cases. I selected two state cases, each with a moderate number of citator results (around 40 results). For each case, I compared the KeyCite and Shepard’s results with the Google Scholar “How Cited” Results.

With respect to both cases, every citator result that affected the validity of the cases (negative citing references) appeared in all citators, including Google Scholar, towards the top of the results. All results that discussed the cited cases appeared in all citators, as well. In connection with these two particular cases, the ordering of results were substantially similar in all citators. Importantly, however, Google Scholar does not index most unreported or unpublished cases. So, if you want an accurate depiction of how many times a case is cited, there is no substitute for West or Lexis. But with respect to precedent that might actually affect a case’s viability, I found no substantive differences between the citators.

Of course, there are differences in the way Google Scholar and Lexis/Westlaw present the results. Google doesn’t provide any treatment signals (e.g., red flags, stars, etc.). Nonetheless, one might argue that this might cause attorneys to study the precedent more carefully, rather than rely on the West/Lexis characterization of precedent. I also found the case excerpts in Google Scholar’s How Cited results much more helpful than the excerpts provided by West and Lexis.

FAQs about Google Schoolar in Legal Research

(using partly information from mdcourts.gov)

Where does Google get these cases?. Google says that the case law in Google Scholar is licensed from a major legal information vendor, without naming it.
Can I see if a case is still “good law”?. Yes, Google Scholar includes a list of cases that have cited a selected opinion. Use this feature with caution since results are computer generated and depend on the quality of the citation. Of course you will need to read the opinion to see if it is still “good law.”
Can I search for just State cases?. Yes. Choose Legal Document and then Select Courts and choose the State you are interested in.
Can I search my State and Federal cases at the same time?. No. You can search just for your State opinions and just for Federal opinions, but not in a single search.
How quickly do cases show up in Google Scholar?. It may take up to a month for recently issued opinions to appear in Google Scholar.
Can I search by citation?. Yes, search the citiation either as an exact phrase or in quotes.
Can I search by party name?. Yes, this works very well if the the option to search “in the title of the article”is selected. This is the dropdown box next to the “where my words occur”option.
Can I search on a topic?. Yes, but the results here are very mixed.
Can I search by code citation?. Not really. Searching for a code citation in an opinion generally gives poor results, even if the citation is correctly formatted and in quotes.
How do I cite a case I found in Google Scholar?. See Bluebook Rule 18.2 and ALWD Rule 12.15. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to verify the case in the official case reporter.

Other Academic Search Engines

gpoaccess.gov. Retired.
Scirus. Retired. Lately, it was in ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s full-text content platform. Elsevier also offers Scopus.
Smealsearch2.psu.edu. Retired.
VoS. It started in 1994 as a suite of static Web pages. Lately, it has been rebuilt as a database that serves content dynamically on the Web.

Resources

Comments

One response to “Google Scholar”

international

November 9, 2015

It seems that, in California, by sending confidential information to clients through their Gmail account, I have both breached the clients’ statutory privilege (Cal. Evid. Code §§ 950-62) and abandoned my statutory obligation as an attorney “to maintain inviolate the confidence, and at every peril to himself or herself to preserve the secrets, of his or her client.” (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6068(e)(1)).

Google Scholar