Tort Law: Primary Sources

Federal Law

• Federal Tort Claims Act 28 U.S.C., Chapter 171 
  • Federal Tort Claims Act 28 U.S.C., Chapter 171 (via Legal Information Institute)
  • Federal Tort Claims Act 28 U.S.C., Chapter 171 (via LexisNexis - need login)
  • Federal Tort Claims Act 28 U.S.C., Chapter 171 (via WestLaw - need login)
  • Establishes conditions for which the United States may be held liable for injuries caused by its employees within the scope of their employment.

State Law

Tort Law is primarily state-based, with each state having its own set of laws on various types of tort actions. 

 

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Key Numbers

• Consult an annotated code to identify cases applying or interpreting a specific law. 
• Conduct a KeyCite (Westlaw Edge) or Shepard's (LexisNexis) if you have a citation to a case. KeyCite and Shepard's trace the history of the case to which have a citation and later cases that have referred to the case. Cases about the statute will be listed as citing references. 

Locating Case Law on Westlaw

• Search a single jurisdiction using keywords
• Search multiple jurisdictions using key words
• Search of specific areas of Law
• Search by Key Number
• From Westlaw home page > link to Cases > scroll toward the bottom of page where Cases By Topic are listed > Tort Law

Locating Case Law on Lexis+

• From Lexis+ home page > Topics > Torts
• Then follow the instructions to limit the search

National Survey of State Laws (available on HeinOnline)

• Browse Databases by Category
• U.S. State
• National Survey of State Laws
• Browse Laws by Category OR Browse Laws by Topic

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From Lexis+ home page > Topics > Torts. 

Then follow the instructions to further limit your search.