Introduction
Case law and statute law are intertwined. When a judge interprets a statute, that interpretation may become binding, according to the principles of stare decisis. Therefore, it is not sufficient to look only at the text of a statute. You must also investigate how courts have dealt with that piece of legislation. This process is often referred to as "noting up a statute", or looking for "statutes judicially considered" and can be completed using print or electronic sources.
A statute citator is the name given to a research tool that lists cases which have, in some way, considered or discussed a particular statute or section of a statute. Tables of statutes judicially considered will provide you with the names of cases that have considered a particular legislative provision. Since these cases are crucial to the interpretation of statutes, they must be consulted.
Note: No single statute citator is comprehensive. There is substantial overlap in these sources, but each also includes unique cases. To be absolutely thorough, a researcher would want to check more than one citator.
