Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Missouri

Re: Precisely where do I find case law?

It is difficult to tell you precisely where to go without knowing what statute you're talking about. The Revised Statutes of Missouri or Vernons Missouri Annotated Statutes both have case law indexes and provide short case citations on certain topics.

Find the statute number, and look in the "annotations" for cases that interpret or explain the statute. You may also find that some of these books have a "pocket part" in the back of the book. Be sure to check there too.

If you can't find answers there, you can look in the Missouri Digest under the area of law in which you're interested. That will also have short case citations that you can work from.

Once you find a case use the citation (623 S.W.2d 443) to find the case. That means volume 623 of the Southwest Reporter (where MO cases are kept) and on page 443 you'll find the case.

Hope that helps