How To Search For State Cases

Once you have logged in and navigated to the Westlaw Research page, click on the “California” tab.

In the “Cases” box, you can choose which databases to search.  Click on “Show all” in order to see every database which you may search.

• Tip: For your memos, you want to search within the “California Reported Cases” so that you do not come across any unreported cases to which you cannot cite.

• Also note that “California Reported Cases” and “West's California Reported Cases” are the same database (CA-CSR).

• For state memos, if you only need Supreme Court or 9th Circuit cases, then you can choose “Supreme Court” or “9th Circuit Court of Appeals.”

After you have chosen your database, you are ready to run a search. 

On the search page, choose "natural language" or "terms and connectors."  Type your search terms and click “Search."  For more information about formulating successful searches, click here.

Westlaw will provide you with a list of search results.  For more information about reading and navigating search results, click here.