TRUMAN STATE UNIVERSITY Pickler Memorial Library Truman State University

COMM 455: Media Law and Ethics

Finding a topic or case: 

 

Media Law Reporter (REF KF 2750 A513):  Yearly volume containing court decisions on media and communications-related topics (First Amendment, Internet privacy, video piracy, etc.)

  • Look up broad topic area in index at front
  • Locate the section or sub-section listings to get an overview of the topic and the relevant cases
  • Use the page references to find information on the cases themselves
  • Note the names of cases (New York Times vs. Tasini) or the page references (29 Med. L. Rep. 1865) to find the cases in LexisNexis

Accessing Legal Research on LexisNexis Academic 

Click on the button for Databases at the top of the Pickler Memorial Library homepage and then select LexisNexis or go directly to the service at http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic

LexisNexis Academic has several components (News, Legal, and Business being the major ones).  To access the legal component, click on the red Legal tab at the top of the page.  This section of the database allows for searching law reviews as well state and federal case law.

Finding Specific Cases 

The Legal Research page defaults to a search screen for finding law reviews.  To search for a specific case law, click on Federal & State Cases in the column on the right-hand side.  The bottom half of the search screen that appears contains options for entering information about a case.  Depending on the information you have about the case you may use any combination of these search boxes to locate the text of the legal ruling.  This can include the names of the parties in the case, the date the case was decided, the legal citation(s) for the case, or even the name of the presiding judge.

Example:

Case Name:              Anderson vs. Augusta Chronicle
Date of Decision:      February 3, 2003
Citations:                   31 Media L. Rep. 1393
                                    355 S.C. 461; 585 S.E.2d 506; 2003 S.C. App. LEXIS 14

(Most cases have more than one citation)

You can find the full text of this case by entering one or both of the parties in the case name (the order does not matter).  This may bring up several cases but you can limit further by typing in the date of the decision.  If you know any one of the citations, you may type that in on the line for citation number and should automatically retrieve the correct case.

You may retrieve state or federal cases at any level in this search.

Finding Legal Cases on a Topic 

You may want to search for cases in an area of law rather than for a specific case.  To do this, click on the link to Federal & State Cases as noted above and use the search box at the top of the screen to type in terms you wish to look for in the text of legal cases.  Check the button for Natural Language to type in terms you wish to find.  This will return any cases that contain the combination of terms you have entered..  For a more precise search, use the option for Terms and Connectors to combine terms with Boolean operators (AND, OR, AND NOT, etc.).  A guide to using these connectors is available at

http://www.lexisnexis.com/help/global/US/en_US/connect_frameset.asp

A search for bankruptcy protection with Natural Language selected will return cases containing those exact terms in the order specified.  A search for bankruptcy AND protection with Terms and Connectors will return any cases that contain both the terms in any order or context.

In the drop-down box for Select Sources, you may also choose to limit your search to specific types of legal cases such as federal jurisdictions or bankruptcy courts.

Depending on the search you have entered, you may get a message such as the one below

Warning: Over 3000 results

More than 3000 Results

You then have the option of editing the search to narrow the results or retrieving the results.  If you choose retrieval, you will still see all your results but they may take some time to load.

Limiting Your Results 

Once you have found results for a search, you may limit them by using the categories in the right-hand column.  Select one of the main categories, such as Cases or Decisions and then choose from one or the publication types listed below (US District Court Cases, GA Court of Appeals Cases, etc.).  This allows you to see cases in a specific area of jurisdiction rather than the combined spectrum of state and federal cases.

You may also limit your searches from the beginning by using the drop down boxes on the search screen.  Under Select Sources, choose from the options that are available, including Federal Court Cases, Combined; U.S. Supreme Court Cases, Lawyers' Edition; U.S. District Court Cases, Combined; and State Court Cases, Combined.  Farther down, you also see options for searching individual states (AK Federal & State Court Cases, Combined, for example).

You may also limit by date in the drop down box provided.  This provides a variety of options, ranging from Today, Previous Week, Previous 2 Years, to Previous 20 Years as well the option of indicating specific date ranges.

Other Resources

 

Encouraging Discovery