11 - Legal Research Flashcards
online
1 - connected to another computer or computer network, often through the internet
2 - residing on a computer and available for use; activated and ready for use on a computer
Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA)
a statute that provides a method of letting users of government sites know that the law contained on the sites is authentic
federal depository library
a public or private library that receives free federal government publications to which it must allow access by the general public without cost
CARTWHEEL
a technique designed to help you think of a large variety of words and phrases to check in online search engines and in book indexes
pinpoint cite
a reference to specific material within a document (e.g. a quote) in addition to the citation of the entire document
codify
to arrange laws or rules in a systemic order, usually by subject matter, regardless of when the laws or rules were enacted
Restatement
a special legal treatise of the American Law Institute that states the law and indicates changes in the law that the Institute would like to see implemented
motion
an application or request made to a court or other decision-making body seeking to obtain a favorable action or ruling
short-form citation
an abbreviated citation format of an authority for which you have already provided a complete citation earlier in the document
term of art
a word or phrase that has a special or technical meaning
on point
1 - raising or covering the same issue as the one before you
2 - relevant to the issues of a research problem
Descriptive Word Index (DWI)
the main index to the digest of West; index will lead you to key numbers, which is the heart of the organization system used by the digest to find case law
annotations
1 - research paper in sets of volumes called American Law Reports (ALR)
2 - note or commentary that summarizes or explains something
ALR index
the main index to annotations within the volumes of American Law Reports
reversed
to reject or cancel a holding on appeal in the same litigation
overruled
to reject or cancel a holding in an earlier opinion by rendering an opposite decision on the same question of law in a different litigation
cited
mentioned or discussed
citator
a book or online service containing lists of citations that can
a) help you assess the current validity of an opinion, statute, or other items; and
b) give you leads to additional relevant materials
shepardize
to use Shepard’s Citations to obtain validation and other data on a case, statute, or other documents you are shepardizing
slip law
a single act passed by the legislature and printed in a single pamphlet
session law
a statute passed by the legislature and printed in volumes that are organized by date rather than by subject matter
statutory code
a collection of statutes organized by subject matter rather than by date
official statutory code
published by the government or by a private company with special permission or authority from the government
unofficial statutory code
published by a private company without special permissions or authority from the government
pocket part
a pamphlet inserted into a small pocket built into the inside back cover of a hardcover volume; pamphlet contains text that supplements or updates material in the hardcover volume
annotate
to provide notes or commentary (if provided along with the text)
annotated statutory code
a collection of statutes organized by subject matter rather than by date, along with research references such as historical notes and summaries of court opinions that have interpreted the statutes
notes of decisions
summaries of opinions that have interpreted a statute, usually printed beneath the text of the statute in annotated statutory codes
historical note
information on the legislative history of a statute printed after the text of the statute
popular name
a phrase or short title identifying a particular statute
natural language
plain English as spoken or written every day, as opposed to a language that is specifically designed for computer communication
terms and connectors
relationships between terms in a search query that specify which documents should be included in or excluded from the search
universal character
a special character (* ! ?) that can be used to represent one or more characters in a search query
root expander
an exclamation mark (!) that stands for one or more characters added to the root of a term you are searching in Westlaw and LexisNexis
wildcard
a special character (* ! ?) that can be used to represent one or more characters in a search query
