Thomas v. Capital Security Services, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
836 F.2d 866 · 1988
Citation profile
283 federal appellate · 16 district · 72 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 612 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp. (1990), Chambers v. Nasco, Inc. (1991)
283 federal appellate · 16 district · 72 state decisions — followed in 24 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 6673 · 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 28 U.S.C. § 1927 · 28 U.S.C. § 2072 · 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Civil Rights Act of 1866) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988 · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 706 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Hall v. Cole · New Jersey Department of Corrections v. Nash · Eastway Construction Corp. v. City of New York · Oliveri v. Thompson
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 612 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“1) The time available to the signer for investigation; 2) The extent of the attorney's reliance on his client for the factual support for the document; 3) The feasibility of a prefiling investigation; 4) Whether the signing attorney accepted the case from another member of the bar or forwarding attorney; 5) The complexity of the factual and legal issues; and 6) The extent to which development of the factual circumstances underlying the claim requires discovery. Diesel Driving, supra, citing Thomas, supra.”
42 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the extent to which the nonviolating party's expenses and fees could have been avoided or were self-imposed.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.