Legal research 5 min read
Treatment signals, and what to do when your authority is overruled
The citator shows how later courts have treated a judgment. A red signal means it has been overruled or not followed — verify before you rely on it.
Every judgment carries treatment signals: a summary of how later courts have treated it. This is the difference between citing good law and citing a case that has been swept away.
The signals
- Positive — followed or applied by later courts.
- Cautionary — distinguished or doubted in later judgments.
- Negative — overruled or not followed. This is shown as a red warning.
Each judgment also shows how many times it has been cited, which is one input into ranking. Overruled authorities are demoted in the ranking as well as flagged.
What to do when you see a red signal
- 1Stop before you cite it. Open the judgment and read the treatment.
- 2Find the later case that overruled or declined to follow it — the citator lists the citing cases.
- 3Check whether the point you need was the point that was overruled. Sometimes only part of a judgment is affected.
- 4If the point still stands, note that expressly; if it does not, use the later authority instead.
Treatment is derived from the citation graph within Molao's corpus and should be confirmed against the official reports before you rely on it.
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