Citator

Definition of Citator

Note: See a more comprehensive approach to the Citator legal concept in the American Law Encyclopedia

Reference source that indicates the current status of court decisions or laws. A citator is used to determine which cases or laws apply to a particular issue and whether these cases or laws remain authoritative on the question. The most commonly used citator is Sheppard's Citations. It contains virtually every printed case and law in the United States. Sheppard's is so widely used that the term “Sheppardize” has come to mean searching for cases with a citator. More than one set of citators exists. For example, Sheppard's United States Citations contains U.S. Supreme Court decisions and federal laws. Sheppard's Federal Citations, itself broken into two series, contains decisions from lower federal courts. One series contains cases from the Federal Supplement (district court cases) while the other has citations from cases in the Federal Reporter (court of appeals cases).

See Also

Federal Supplement (Law of the United States) National Reporter System (Law of the United States) Precedence (Law of the United States) United States Reports (Law of the United States).

Resources

Citator Related Resources

• Citator in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
• Judicial Effects and Policies Keywords in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
• Judicial Policies Keywords in the International Legal Dictionary

Notes

• “Citator”, The American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

Citator (Judicial Policies)