Citation check
Paste a draft or a list of case citations. Each reporter citation, such as 477 U.S. 317, is looked up in the law library’s about 10 million U.S. court decisions, and you see whether a case with that citation is there. No account needed: 3 free checks a day, up to 10 citations in each.
How the check works
The check finds every reporter citation in the text: a volume, the reporter’s name and a first page, such as 477 U.S. 317, 567 F.3d 1234 or 999 So. 3d 4321. Each one is then looked up in the library’s court decisions, which come from 2,197 courts, federal and state, and the case name written before each one is compared with the case at that citation. A short form such as 556 U.S. at 678 is matched to the nearest case in that volume that starts before page 678.
- Found means a case with that citation is in the library.
- Not found means the library has no case at that citation. The numbers may be mistyped, the case may be unpublished, or it may not be in the library yet.
- Not confirmed means a case is at that citation, but the case name written before it does not match it.
- Not checked means the lookup did not finish. Run the check again later.
What a free account adds
With a free account, the check takes up to 60 citations at a time and shows the case each one points to, whether the case name written before it matches that case, and a red or yellow flag when a later case may have overruled or limited it. Your AI assistant can run it too, through the connector. Statutes written with §, court rules, id. and database numbers such as 2019 WL 1234567 are not checked. A statute written without §, such as 28 U.S.C. 1291, can be read as a reporter citation and show as Not found.
This is a research tool, not legal advice. Found means a case with that citation is in the library. It does not tell you what the case says or whether it is still good law; the case itself does.
