Pritzker Legal Research Center: Standout Summer Research Resources: Litigation Resources: Practice Guides, Dockets, Analytics, and More

Introduction

This page provides a variety of recommendations for resources related to litigation. If you are working in this area, you may also wish to review the Pritzker Legal Research Center's more extensive Litigation Practice Materials guide. Descriptions of the content for each title are taken directly from the source notes on the respective research platforms.

Treatises and Practice Guides

American Jurisprudence Proof of Facts (Westlaw)
What to prove and how to prove it to win your case. Written by well-known judges, attorneys and experts in technical, scientific and medical fields. Explains how to determine quickly and confidently the facts essential to winning a case, and how to prove them for a wide range of civil litigation and selected criminal defense topics.
American Jurisprudence Trials (Westlaw)
American Jurisprudence Trials contains articles authored by practicing attorneys and covers all areas of litigation. The articles provide trial-tested litigation tools to secure better settlements and verdicts.
Moore's Federal Practice (Lexis)
From its initial publication, Moore's instantly became the standard reference work on federal court procedure and has been cited in over 40,000 decisions. Moore's provides the full text of the federal rules and extensive commentary and analysis of the rules and cases interpreting the rules.
Weinstein's Federal Evidence (Lexis)
Chapters are organized by rule number, and the discussion in each chapter is broken down into logical descriptive topical section headings to enable users to quickly find the specific information for which they are looking. The analytical text focuses on the current state of the law and includes footnotes organized by circuits (with brief descriptions of each case), while retaining information on the historical development of the law in historical appendices to each chapter. In addition to clearly setting forth the law, Weinstein's Federal Practice provides expert analysis and coverage of unsettled evidence issues.
Wright and Miller on Federal Practice and Procedure (Westlaw)
Comprehensive and authoritative coverage of all aspects of federal civil, criminal and appellate procedure, including rules of civil, criminal, and appellate procedure, rules of evidence, the federal judicial system, jurisdiction of all federal courts, venue, removal of cases, res judicata, relation of state and federal courts, multidistrict litigation, and more.

State-Specific Resources

California Civil Procedure Before Trial (CEB) (Lexis)
An indispensable source of information, this book helps you effectively tackle pretrial litigation from first client contact, through pleadings and law and motion matters, to preparing yourself for the best outcome whether through settlement, arbitration, or trial. Filled with sample forms.
California Trial Practice: Civil Procedure During Trial (CEB) (Lexis)
Everything you need to know about preparing for all aspects of a civil trial. Concise, helpful advice from judges and experienced practitioners on handling trial efficiently checklists to help you in all phases of pretrial preparation and during trial planning, preparing, and delivering opening statements and closing arguments, jury instructions, jury misconduct, and verdicts attorney fees and costs.
Carmody-Wait 2d New York Practice with Forms (Westlaw)
Carmody-Wait, 2d, Cyclopedia of New York Practice with Forms provides discussion, step-by-step guidance, illustrative, examples, and forms for all phases of New York civil and criminal practice.
Graham's Handbook of Illinois Evidence (VitalLaw)
Provides detailed discussion of leading cases, and in-depth analysis of how the Illinois courts treat such issues as: subsequent remedial measures, credibility of witnesses, expert reconstruction testimony, human factors engineering, blood alcohol tests, hypnosis, probability assessment and rereading of testimony.
Illinois Civil Litigation Guide--Illinois Practice Series (Westlaw)
Illinois Civil Litigation Guide contains select state, federal, and local civil practice laws and rules relevant to Illinois civil procedure - all in a single reference. Expert author commentary and research references are provided for additional practical guidance in this area of law. For ease of use, all rules have been grouped by subject matter.
New York Civil Practice: CPLR (Weinstein Korn & Miller) (Lexis)
New York Civil Practice: CPLR is recognized by the courts and the market as the authority on New York civil practice. For more than 40 years, Weinstein, Korn & Miller has made the analysis of eminent experts easily accessible and relevant.
Nichols Illinois Civil Practice with Forms (Westlaw)
Nichols Illinois Civil Practice with Forms is a 15-volume guide to civil practice in Illinois.

Click here to view the complete list of state-specific litigation treatises on Westlaw.

Click here to view the complete list of civil procedure treatises, including many state-specific titles, on Lexis.

Litigation Intelligence Center, Practical Guidance, and Practical Law

Litigation Intelligence Center: Practical Guidance Library (Bloomberg Law)
Includes extensive practical content related to initiating and responding to litigation, discovery, and causes of action and defenses.
Practical Guidance: Civil Litigation (Lexis)
Materials are organized by task (e.g., discovery, motions, etc). Within these categories, you may narrow by content type or jurisdiction.
Practical Law: Litigation (Westlaw)
Offers a large collection of practical materials dealing with civil practice and procedure, as well as specialist litigation. In particular, consider reviewing the practice notes, checklists, and toolkits. State-specific content is also available.

Docket Research

Bloomberg Law is the preferred resource for locating dockets and filings for federal cases because it pulls directly from PACER (the Public Access to Court Electronic Records service used by federal courts).

Westlaw and Lexis (CourtLink) are each useful for reviewing case dockets, but underlying court filings from the cases are often not available on these platforms.

To locate state court dockets, all of the above-mentioned resources are useful. However, they often do not provide access to the underlying filings. If you are unable to locate the information you need, you might try visiting the court's website or contacting the clerk's office.

Litigation Analytics

Bloomberg Law Litigation Analytics
Analytics for attorneys, companies, courts, judges, and law firms.
Lexis Context
Analytics for attorneys, courts, companies, expert witnesses, and judges.
Lexis Litigation Analytics
Analytics for attorneys, courts, judges, and law firms.
Westlaw Litigation Analytics
Analytics for attorneys, case types, courts, damages, judges, and law firms.

Brief Analysis Tools

Because each of these tools requires that you upload your work product to a remote server, we recommend checking with your supervisor before using them.

Bloomberg Law Brief Analyzer
Brief Analyzer enables attorneys to work smarter by reducing the amount of time spent on brief analysis. Drag and drop a brief or select a file from the uploader link below to generate a report of the cited authorities and arguments contained in the brief, as well as a list of suggested content for review.
Casetext CARA A.I.
A tool which allows you to upload a legal document and receive recommendations of additional potentially relevant cases, statutes, and other authorities. You can create an account using your 'law.northwestern.edu' email address.
Lexis Brief Analysis
Analyze a brief or passage or compare multiple briefs. Useful for researching your own arguments and your opponent's arguments.
Westlaw Quick Check
Quick Check analyzes your document to recommend additional case law that may be relevant. It also analyzes the authorities you've cited to determine whether they are still good law.