How to find which case a legal quote comes from

Short answer: search a distinctive 8-15-word part of the quotation in quotation marks in a case-law database, open the earliest opinion that contains it, and confirm the wording, case name, citation and pin page there - not in a brief that quotes it. Google Scholar does this for free; LegiMatch's phrase search finds the source of real quotations in 39 of 40 tests in well under a second.

Disclosure: we make LegiMatch.

Why this is harder than it looks

Many of the quotations lawyers want to trace are standard legal formulas - "reviewed for an abuse of discretion," "the evidence of the non-movant is to be believed" - that later courts repeat hundreds of times. A search finds dozens of decisions with the words; the job is to find the one that said it first and that you should cite.

Step by step

1. Pick a distinctive fragment. 8-15 words, avoiding the most common phrases. If the quotation has brackets or an ellipsis, search the part between them.
2. Search it as an exact phrase (in quotation marks).
3. No result? Shorten the fragment, try a different part, or drop the quotation marks: the quotation may be altered or paraphrased.
4. Many results? Sort by date and look at the earliest decisions; the later ones usually say "quoting" or cite the source. Follow that trail back.
5. Open the source opinion and confirm the exact wording, the pin page and the case name.
6. Check the case is still good law before citing it.

Your options

LegiMatch phrase search

Since October 2026, paste a sentence or quotation into search in quotation marks. LegiMatch looks it up in a phrase index of every opinion in its library and lists the decisions containing it, the earliest - usually the source - first.

Across the full library, it found the source of 39 of 40 real quotations that judges and lawyers had taken from earlier cases (36 of them in the top 3), and 29 of 29 random sentences from opinions (28 at the top), in 0.1-0.3 seconds each. The one miss is a phrase repeated in so many later decisions that the original falls outside the first 20 results. For comparison, our previous search found 7 of the 40.

If you already know the case a brief cites for a quotation, Brief Check verifies the quotation against that case word for word and shows exactly which words differ.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know which case originally said it?

Look at the earliest decisions containing the phrase, and at the "(quoting ...)" parentheticals in later ones; they point back to the source.

What if the quote isn't found anywhere?

It may be altered, paraphrased, from a statute or the record, or invented. Search shorter fragments; if nothing matches, don't cite it until you find the source.

Is Google Scholar good enough?

For discovery, often yes. Confirm the quotation and the case's later treatment before you rely on it.