The MLK Library at LACC subscribes to the NexisUni database. Students can use NexisUni to search news, legal cases, law reviews, company information, country information, or use the Shepard's Citations Service.
If you are off campus you will need to authenticate with your college credentials. Once in NexisUni, browse cases, news, law reviews, statutes and more by entering your search term in the main search box and then filtering in the results page by Source type, or use the Guided Search to isolate your search by content type.
Explore the tabs in this box to find training tutorials and links to help you navigate and use this valuable research tool.
Case law is an important source of law in all areas, even those that are heavily legislated. It is the law developed over time by judges in superior courts. Each case or judgment delivered by these superior courts is the solution to the dispute between parties to the case. Once the judgment is delivered it becomes precedent that future disputes will be settled based upon.
Decisions made in superior (higher) courts form precedents and inferior (lower) courts must follow these precedents, this is the doctrine of precedent, or stare decisis.
Adapted from Bethel College's Finding Legal Information Guide
A law review is an entirely student-run journal that publishes articles written by law professors, judges, and other legal professionals; many law reviews also publish shorter pieces written by law students called “notes” or “comments.”
Adapted from Bethel College's Finding Legal Information Guide
Administrative Codes and Regulations come from the executive branches of federal or state government.
It may be helpful to narrow your search results. Look for the narrow options on the left of the results screen.
You can limit the jurisdiction to U.S. Federal, or by state.
Within Nexis Uni, students can access Deering's California Codes Annotated. To navigate to the codes, start typing in the main search box and you will see it pop up as a Source. Click on the Index/Outline image and from there you can browse through the codes or search within them.
Statutes and Legislation come from the legislative branches of federal or state government.
For example: Family and Medical Leave Act 29 U.S.C. § 2601
Click the drop down next to the search field, and choose Statutes and Legislation.
Enter the citation. When entering a citation that has a "§" section symbol, such as 29 U.S.C. § 2601, you can skip that section symbol.
Note: multiple words in quotes will search for that exact phrase.
Adapted from Edgewood College Legal Research Library Guide
Shepard's Citations let you know every opinion where that case has been referenced, all treatments of the case, and, most importantly, whether or not the case is "good law." Navigate to this library guide on Shepard's Citations to find out more information about this important tool and how to use it.
Adapted from Bethel College's Finding Legal Information Guide
For more help with this database, visit Nexis Uni Support & Training page for search tips, tricks, training videos and more, or contact the MLK Library for assistance.
