Methodology

Cite11 verifies that citations exist and resolve to the case named; it does not report whether a case is still good law.

What a check does

Cite11 takes the case citations in a document and checks each one against CourtListener's public case-law record. For each citation it confirms three things: that the case exists, that the citation address (volume, reporter, page) actually resolves to the case named, and, where a quote is checked, that the quoted language appears in that opinion's text. When all three hold, the citation is reported verified. When the case is confirmed by name, court, and year but no reporter citation is on file yet to check the page against, it is reported verified by name. Anything else is reported with the specific reason it could not be confirmed, or as not found.

What a check does not do

A verified result means the citation exists and points where it says it points. It does not mean the case is still good law: Cite11 does not check whether a case has been overruled, reversed, or superseded, and it does not check subsequent history at all. It also does not judge whether the case supports the proposition it was cited for — that is a legal judgment, not a record lookup, and it stays with the lawyer. Statute, regulation, and other non-case citations are outside scope entirely; only case-law citations are checked.

Coverage

Citations are matched using CourtListener's citation-lookup service (documentation). Checks run against CourtListener's public database as of the date on the report. Not every court and reporter is covered, and very recent or unpublished decisions may not be indexed yet. A citation that falls outside confirmed coverage is reported as such, not guessed at — and is not the same as a citation reported not found.

Not legal advice

A Cite11 report is a record of what the public record shows on the date of the check. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace independently confirming any citation that matters in your own primary-source research.