LibGuides: Federal Tax Law Research: Cases

Free Caselaw Databases

Tax Court Opinion Search (Dawson)
Coverage of T.C. and memorandum opinions from Oct. 1995 to current. Summary opinions from Jan. 2001 to current.
Court of Federal Claims Opinions & Orders
Coverage from Jan. 2003 to current.
Supreme Court Opinions (Cornell LII)
The Cornell Legal Information Institute provides coverage of U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1990 to current.

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Scroll down the page to see options for searching and selecting cases by topic, author (justice) and party.

Federal Courts of Appeals Opinions (Cornell LII)
The Cornell Legal Information Institute provides coverage of Courts of Appeals opinions from the mid 1990s to current for most federal circuits.

Federal District & Bankruptcy Courts Opinions (Cornell LII)
The Cornell Legal Information Institute groups the links to the courts by circuit. Whether the opinions are available and the dates of coverage vary by court.
FindLaw (Thomson Reuters)
FindLaw is a free site providing the full text of court opinions with dates of coverage that vary by court.

Forums for Tax Cases

Tax cases may begin in the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims or the U.S. District Courts. In addition, significant tax controversies may arise in bankruptcy cases. When appealed, these cases ordinarily move up the hierarchy of the court system following the lines indicated in the diagram.

Understanding Tax Court Opinions

How to Read Tax Court Opinions
This link takes the user to a PDF copy in the Heinonline database of an article by the Honorable Mary Ann Cohen, Judge, U.S. Tax Court. 1 Hous. Bus. & Tax L. J. 1 (2001).

Print Sources

United States Tax Court Reports
Call Number: Third floor KF6280 .A2 .T37

Villanova Subscription Databases

Bloomberg Law
Use the Court Opinions link to search for case law. Bloomberg covers all levels of the federal courts as well as the U.S. Tax Court (regular, memorandum and summary opinions), the Court of Federal Claims and the Bankruptcy Courts. Bloomberg Law is particularly useful for searching federal court dockets, including the U.S. Tax Court. It covers the Tax Court docket from 1986 to current. Coverage of other federal court dockets varies by court. Using the "Dockets" link underthe "Research Tools" column, select by court and search by keyword, party name, date range, etc.

These databases may be accessed by faculty and students of the Villanova University School of Law.

Lexis+
This link takes the user to the Tax Law Practice Area--Cases Advanced Search page in Lexis+. Coverage includes all levels of the federal courts as well as the U.S. Tax Court (regular, memorandum and summary opinions), the Court of Federal Claims and the Bankruptcy Courts.

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After running a search, the results can be filtered by the court of your choice using the links on the left side of the screen. Note that the search results from the bankruptcy courts can be found by selecting the left-side filter for the federal circuit where each court sits.
Checkpoint--Cases
After logging in to Checkpoint, this link should take you to the Federal Tax Decisions content within the system. It covers U.S. Tax Court cases (regular, memorandum and summary opinions) as well as the cases published in the American Federal Tax Reports (AFTR), which includes tax cases from all levels of the federal courts (Supreme, Courts of Appeals and District), the Court of Federal Claims and the Bankruptcy Courts.
Westlaw Federal Tax Cases
This database covers cases from all levels of the federal court system (Supreme, Courts of Appeals, and District) as well as the U.S. Tax Court (regular, memorandum and summary opinions), Court of Federal Claims and Bankruptcy Courts.