Searching by Citation is the most efficient way to find the case you need!  Here’s an example of how to interpret them:

United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S. Ct. 738, 160 L. Ed. 2d 621 (2005)

• In this citation, the names of the parties are United States and Booker; thus, the case name is United States v. Booker.  Typically the plaintiff is listed first, and the defendant second.
• The next part of the citation tells you where to locate it.  This citation tells us that this case is reported in volume 543 of the United States Reports (abbreviated U.S.) and that the case begins on page 220.  This is the official citation for this case. 
• Most cases are reported in more than one place.  The official citation will always be listed first, and then followed by citations for anywhere else that case was reported.  For instance, this case was also published in the Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.), and in the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition (L. Ed. 2d).  The parallel citations give the volume and page number for where you would find this case in those sources.
• The citation will also give you the year that a decision was reached: in this case, 2005.
• Sometimes you will encounter the symbol § which means “Section”.  When searching Nexis Uni, replace the symbol with SECTION or SEC (so 5 USCS § 5901 becomes 5 USCS SEC 5901).

Citations must be formatted correctly, including punctuation, for a successful search.  For more information see the Nexis Uni Help section.

Tip: If you are not sure what the abbreviation in a citation stands for....Google it!

1. At the Nexis Uni home page, locate the Guided Search task pods.
2. Choose Cases in the What are you interested in? box.
3. Type your search terms in the About box.
4. Choose the news timeframe you want to search in from the All Dates drop-down list.
5. Click Search. Your results appear.

When you click on a case, you will usually see the case citation information, followed by information such as the Case Summary, Core Terms associated with that case (which you could use to search for similar cases), and Headnotes (if there are any).  The Headnotes are like the "Cliff's notes" version of a case, telling you the major points or highlights.  You can click on each Headnote to jump to its location in the full text of the case.

The full text of the case will usually follow the Headnotes.  You can print the full text in an HTML version by clicking the "Print" icon; however, this will not give you the page numbers that you'll need to cite the case properly in your research paper.  For more information on accessing PDFs, refer to that box on this page.

Court cases listed in Nexis Uni will include an HTML version of the decision, but if you want to have the page numbers to cite in your research paper, you will need a PDF version.

For cases that are published by Nexis Uni, for example in the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (L. Ed. 2d as listed in the citation above), there may be a link in Nexis Uni to that PDF at the top of the case.  (Look for a link that says something like "View Official Reports PDF of This Document").  Keep in mind though that this will be the text from the parallel citation, not the official citation.

To access the publication for the official citation (such as the United States Reports in the citation above), check HeinOnline to see if the case is available there in full text.

• From the HeinOnline homepage, click the red "Login" button at the top right of the screen.
• Click on the "Citation Navigator" tab near the top of the screen.
• Enter the citation of the case you're looking for, such as "543 U.S. 220" and click "Get Citation"
• If that publication is available in HeinOnline, the case you searched should come up in PDF format, which you can then print or download.