Shepard’s Citations is the citator tool, available through the Lexis legal research platform, that lawyers use to confirm a case, statute, or regulation is still good law before relying on it. It tracks every time an authority has been cited by a later court and flags whether that treatment was positive, negative, or neutral. The process is called “Shepardizing,” and skipping it is one of the fastest ways to undermine a legal argument or draw sanctions from a judge.
What the Color Signals Mean
Every Shepard’s report opens with a colored icon next to the authority’s name. Four signals do most of the work.
- Red means strong negative treatment. A court has overruled or reversed the authority, or a legislature has superseded the statute. The authority is no longer reliable for at least one point it originally established.
- Yellow means the authority has been criticized, limited, or distinguished by a later court. It is not dead, but it has taken damage.
- Green means later courts have followed, affirmed, or otherwise approved the authority. The holding remains strong precedent.
- Blue means the authority has been cited without meaningful positive or negative analysis. These references may point you toward related material but say little about current validity.
The top-line color is where most researchers trip up. A single case can carry a red signal yet remain perfectly valid on nine out of ten legal points, because Shepard’s ties its warnings to specific headnotes within the opinion. If the negative treatment hit a headnote you aren’t relying on, the case may still be usable. Check which headnote drew the flag before you abandon the authority.
The Two Main Parts of a Shepard’s Report
A report splits into two sections, and confusing them is a common mistake.
The first, labeled “Appellate History” or “Subsequent History,” traces the procedural life of your case through the court system. Reversals, remands, and affirmances on appeal appear here. When a case has negative appellate history, this is the first place to look, because it tells you whether a higher court undid the ruling you want to cite.
The second, “Citing Decisions,” is broader and usually longer. It lists every later case that cited your authority, regardless of whether those cases were part of the same litigation. A case affirmed on appeal might still have been criticized by dozens of unrelated courts, or the reverse. You need to check both sections to get the full picture.
Filtering Citing Decisions
A landmark case can generate thousands of citing references, so reading every one is impractical. Shepard’s lets you filter by analysis type (negative, positive, neutral), by jurisdiction or court level, by how extensively the citing case discussed your authority, and by specific headnotes. Preparing a brief for a federal appellate court? Filter to federal circuit opinions with negative treatment on your relevant headnote, and you’ll surface the cases opposing counsel is likely to throw at you.
Depth-of-Discussion Indicators
Shepard’s labels each citing reference by how much attention it gave your case. An “analyzed” or “discussed” tag means the citing court engaged meaningfully with the holding. A “mentioned” or “cited” tag means a passing reference. Spend your time on the cases that analyzed the authority rather than the ones that dropped it in a footnote.
How to Run a Shepard’s Search
Before you start, gather the full citation. For a case, that means the volume number, reporter abbreviation, and starting page number. For a statute, you need the title or code number and section. Without precise components, the search engine cannot distinguish your authority from similar-sounding documents.
Logged into Lexis, enter the citation in the main search bar. The platform pulls up the full text of the document with a Shepard’s signal icon next to the title. Click the icon or the “Shepardize this document” link, and the screen shifts to the organized list of appellate history and citing references. From there, use the sidebar filters to narrow results, whether that means limiting to a single jurisdiction or jumping straight to negative treatment.
What You Can Shepardize
Shepard’s covers more than judicial opinions. You can check federal statutes in the United States Code to see whether Congress has amended a provision or a court has struck it down. The same applies to state statutes and administrative regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. If a regulation you plan to rely on was vacated by a reviewing court last year, Shepardizing it will surface that problem before opposing counsel does.
Court rules, constitutional provisions, and certain secondary sources are also tracked. If you are citing a specific rule of civil procedure or a state constitutional amendment, Shepard’s can show you how courts have interpreted and applied it.
What to Do When You Find Negative Treatment
A yellow or red signal does not automatically mean you need to scrap your argument. Identify which holding or headnote drew the negative treatment first. If the criticism targets a different legal issue than the one you are relying on, the authority may still be perfectly citable for your purpose.
When the negative treatment does target your issue, read the citing case carefully. A court that “distinguished” your authority said the facts were different enough that the rule did not apply; that does not invalidate the rule, it just marks an exception. A court that “limited” the authority narrowed its scope. In both situations, you may still use the original holding if your facts fall within the surviving boundaries.
If the authority was outright overruled or reversed on your issue, you have two options: find a replacement authority that supports the same principle, or argue that the overruling decision was wrong and the law should change. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 explicitly protects good-faith arguments for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers You are allowed to advocate for overturning precedent, but you must be transparent about it. Quietly citing an overruled case as though it is still good law crosses from creative advocacy into sanctionable conduct.
Ethical Rules and Sanctions for Citing Bad Law
Shepardizing is an ethical obligation, not just a best practice. ABA Model Rule 3.3 requires lawyers to disclose legal authority in the controlling jurisdiction that is directly adverse to the client’s position when opposing counsel has not already raised it.2American Bar Association. Rule 3.3 Candor Toward the Tribunal You cannot hide from a case that undermines your argument, and you cannot pretend an overruled case still controls. Knowing the current status of the authorities on both sides of your issue is the only way to meet that duty.
Rule 11 adds teeth. By signing and filing any pleading or motion, an attorney certifies that the legal contentions are “warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law.”1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers Filing a brief that relies on overruled precedent without acknowledging its status fails that standard. A court finding a Rule 11 violation can impose sanctions ranging from a formal reprimand to an order requiring payment of the opposing party’s attorney fees. The rule caps the sanction at what is necessary to deter the behavior, but even a modest monetary penalty carries reputational damage that outlasts the fine.
Rule 11 does include a safety valve. If opposing counsel files a motion for sanctions, you have 21 days to withdraw or correct the offending paper before the motion reaches the court.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers The safer move is to Shepardize everything before filing so the problem never arises.
Alternatives to Shepard’s
Shepard’s is not the only citator. If you work in a firm that subscribes to Westlaw instead of Lexis, the equivalent tool is KeyCite. It uses a similar flag system: a red flag warns the case has been reversed or overruled, a yellow flag signals negative history or treatment short of reversal, and a green “C” indicates citing references with no negative history. KeyCite also offers an orange caution icon for “overruling risk,” which flags cases that rely on a decision that has since been invalidated, even when no court has directly addressed your case yet.3Thomson Reuters. KeyCite Flags and Icons for Cases That implicit-undermining feature has no direct equivalent in Shepard’s.
For researchers without access to either premium platform, options narrow. Google Scholar offers a free “Cited by” feature for case law that shows which later cases referenced your authority and some indication of how extensively they discussed it. The critical limitation is that Google Scholar does not assign treatment signals. It will not tell you whether a citing case followed, distinguished, or overruled your authority; you have to read each citing opinion and make that call yourself. Coverage is also not guaranteed to be comprehensive, so relying on it as your sole citator carries real risk.
Attorneys who belong to a state or local bar association should check whether their membership includes free access to Fastcase, which partners with more than 80 bar associations nationwide to provide legal research tools as a member benefit.4Fastcase. Fastcase – Beyond Research Fastcase includes a citator function called Authority Check that flags negative treatment, though its editorial depth is generally thinner than Shepard’s or KeyCite. For solo practitioners and small firms that cannot justify a premium subscription, it fills an important gap.
Getting Access Without a Personal Subscription
Lexis subscriptions for law firms currently range from roughly $114 per month for a basic package to over $430 per month for a full-featured plan, with discounts for multi-year commitments.5LexisNexis. Purchase Lexis and Lexis+ – LexisNexis Pricing Plans for Law Firms That cost is prohibitive for many solo practitioners and inaccessible to non-lawyers representing themselves.
County law libraries, courthouse libraries, and many public law libraries provide free terminal access to Lexis or Westlaw for walk-in users. Remote access through these institutions is usually not available, but in-person access is the same full-featured platform a firm attorney would use. Call ahead to confirm availability and any time limits, since terminal demand can be high. Law school libraries sometimes extend access to the public as well, though policies vary.
If you are a law student, your school almost certainly provides free Lexis and Westlaw accounts that include Shepard’s and KeyCite. Use them heavily while you have them.