Law Resources

Why are there so many cases with the same name and which one do I want?

In order to reach the Supreme Court, a case has to work its way through the (1) trial court (District Court, possibly also a state court) and (2) the Court of Appeals. One of the parties then (3) petitions the Supreme Court for a hearing and Court either (4) accepts or denies the petition with a writ of certiorari (abbreviated Cert in a citation). Along the way, changes might be made to some feature of the litigation, such as (5) change in counsel, (6) a party joining the litigation, or a (7) separation of issues, and each of these results in a document published in Westlaw and the print reporters. Documents such as these are called memorandum decisions and are indicated by (Mem) in a citation. A case like the one described here would generate at least 7 documents in addition to the final judgment, and all the documents would have the same case name. How do you know which one you want?

When you get a long list of what appear to be identical cases, look at the information under the title.

In the example below, a case name search for Campbell v. Acuff-Rose resulted in 6 documents. Of the 3 displayed in the illustration, which one is the Supreme Court case we're looking for?

It can't be the first one, because the citation 25 F.3d 297 indicates that it's a Court of Appeals case, not a Supreme Court case. Also, the parties' names are reversed.
It can't be the third one, because the (Mem) indicates it's a memorandum decision.
So the case we want is the second record: Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, 510 U.S. 569.

If you're still in doubt, click on the case name. If you see a very brief document, it's not what you're looking for. If, on the other hand, the document goes on for several pages, you have found your case.

Susan Clerc
Reference Librarian

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