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Special Education

Searching in Law Reviews and Federal & State Cases

Upon opening LexisNexis Academic, click on the down arrow to Look Up a Legal Case to locate a known case by name or citation.

To search for a topic, click on the down arrow by Search by Content Type located above the search box and highlight either Federal and State Cases or Law Reviews.

To search in Federal and State Cases:
   Click on Advanced Options down arrow to change to Federal or State specific courts and limit search to IDEA related cases
      To change courts being searched, uncheck All Federal & State Courts and check desired Federal or state court
      To limit to IDEA related cases, use Build Your Own Segment Search and select HEADNOTES from the drop down Select a Segment choices.  Enter in the parentheses (Individuals with disabilities education act).  Click on AND and enter search topic that can appear anywhere in the court case text.  Click on ApplyThe search box will contain the search you created in the Build Your Own Segment Search box, as in:
 

               HEADNOTES(Individuals with disabilities education act) AND bullying

 
      To search for your topic in the Case Summary paragraph, select the OVERVIEW segment for the term(s) after AND, as in:
 

               HEADNOTES(Individuals with disabilities education act) AND OVERVIEW(bullying)

 

To search in Law Reviews for a topic:

      Enter  in the search box "individuals with disabilities education act" AND topic, as in
               Individuals with disabilities education act AND bullying
 

 

Searching using Terms and Connectors
  • AND - finds connected words anywhere in document, even in different sections
  • /s, /p, /seg
    • /s - search words appear within same sentence
    • /p - search words appear within same paragraph
    • /seg - search words appear within same segment
  • OR - finds synonyms, alternate spellings or abbreviations
  • AND NOT - excludes word; MUST be entered last   

 

     

Results List options

The following options appear above the Results List:

  • Show - Default is List; can change to Expanded List to see where and how often the search terms appear in the document
  • Sort - Default is Publication Date; can change to Relevance or Chronological to list results with the oldest first
  • Search within results - enter an additional search term to narrow your search
  • Results List I Edit Search I New Search I Home - options of places to navigate to from the current page

The following options appear to the left of the Results List:

  • Sources by Category:
    • Law Review search - limit to just law review articles, journal articles, legal news sources, industry trade publications, or newsletters
    • Federal & State Cases - limit to just supreme court, federal court, or state court
  • Sources by Publication Name - limit to results in a specific publication
  • Sources by Language

Full Record

Links to other full text documents, including other cases and articles, are available throughout the full text document.  Not all full text documents are available to LexisNexis Academic subscribers so may see some "not available" messages.

To view all the places in the document where your search terms appear, use the "hits" forward and back arrows at the bottom right on the screen.

Common legal abbreviations

A., A.2d                      Atlantic Reporter, 1st and 2nd series : cases from Connecticut, Delaware, District of
                                      Columbia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
A.L.R., A.L.R.2nd         American Law Reports, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,and Federal series: cases from Connecticut,
A.L.R.3rd, A.L.R.4th       Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
A.L.R.5th, A.L.R.Fed      Rhode Island, Vermont
Am. Jur. 2d                  American Jurisprudence, second:  encyclopedia
B.R.                            United States Bankruptcy Reporter:  U.S. Bankruptcy Court Cases
Cal.Rptr., Cal.Rptr2nd   California Reporter, 1st and 2nd series:  cases from California Supreme Court, California Court of
                                         Appeal, and California Superior Court, Appellate Dept.
C.J.S.                          Corpus Juris Secundum:  encyclopedia
F., F.2d, F.3d               Federal Reporter, 1st, 2nd and 3rd series:  cases from all U. S.Courts of Appeals
F. Supp., F. Supp2nd    Federal Supplement, 1st and 2nd series:  cases from all U. S. District Courts
F.Cl.                            Federal Claims Reporter:  cases from U. S. Court of Federal Claims
L. Ed., L. Ed. 2d           United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition, 1st and 2nd series:   U.S. Supreme Court 
                                       Cases (Reference JK 1517.U5 2dSer)
M.J.                             West's Military Justice Reporter:  cases from the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and
                                       Military Service Courts of Criminal Appeals
N.E., N.E.2d                 North Eastern Reporter. 1st and 2nd series:   cases from Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New
                                       York, Ohio
N.W., N.W.2d               North Western Reporter, 1st and 2nd series:  cases from Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska,
                                        North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin  
N.Y.S., N.Y.S.2d          New York Supplement, 1st and 2nd series:  cases from New York Court of Appeals and New York
                                         Supreme Court, Appellate Division
P., P.2d, P.3d              Pacific Reporter, 1st, 2nd and 3rd series:  cases from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado,
                                          Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah,
                                          Washington, Wyoming
S.Ct.                           Supreme Court Reporter:  cases from U.S. Supreme Court
S.E., S.E.2d                South Eastern Reporter, 1st and 2nd series:   cases from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
                                          Virginia, West Virginia
S.W., S.W.2d, S.W.3d  South Western Reporter. 1st, 2nd, 3rd series:  cases from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri,
                                          Tennessee, Texas  
So., So. 2d                   Southern Reporter, 1st and 2nd series:  cases from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi
T.C.                              United States Tax Court Reports:  cases from U.S. Tax Court (Fed Gov Doc JU 11.7)
U.S.                             United States Reports:  cases from U.S. Supreme Court
Vet.App.                       West's Veterans Appeals Reporter:  cases from U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
 

Tutorials and Guides

Not sure how to find what you need?  Check the following tutorials and guides: