law chapter 2 Flashcards
True/ False Using the internet to conduct legal research can be beneficial if you carefully evaluate the credibility of the website.
True
To locate court opinions and decisions on case law you should look at
Reporters
The function of citators in legal research is?
validate and expand your research.
check if a case still has precedential value
True /False
When conducting legal research, finding a relevant and current case is trivial.
False
True/ False
Because federal laws (U.S.C.) and regulations (C.FR) are updated frequently, it is better to find resources through legal databases.
True
The difference between the U.S.C., U.S.C.A., and the U.S.C.S. is that…
**both U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. contain additional references to federal regulations and secondary sources
state statues
case law
federal regulations
judicial decision
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
journal articles
legal treatise
legal index
legal dictionary
True/False If you are using the West Digest system to find cases on special education, you could look in the index for all cases including the topic and key number.
True
United States Code U.S.C. Citation
20 U.S.C. § 1401 (29)
20 Title number
U.S.C. United states code
§ Section
1401 Section number
(29) subsection
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Citation
34 C.F.R. § 300.39 (a)(1)
34 title number
C.F.R. Code of Federal Regulations
§ Section
300.39 Section number
(a)(1) Subsection letter and number
Case Law Citations
Daniel R.R. v. State Board of Educ., 874 F.2d 1036 (5th Circ. 1989)
Name of case Daniel R.R. v. State Board of Educ.,
Volume number 874
Name of reporter F.2d
Page number 1036
Court and year of (5th Cir. 1989)
decision
U.S.C.A
United States Code Annotated
United States Code Service
U.S.C.S
U.S.C or The United States Code
Federal statutes are organized by topic and published in a series of volumes
C.F.R
Federal administrative agencies, promulgate regulations to implement and enforce federal statutes
Case Law
The published decisions of the U.S. District Courts (federal trial courts) are collected in a series of reporters called the Federal Supplement
The United States Reports (U.S.)
U.S. supreme court report of appellant decisions published by the government and is the official report
b. Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.).
U.S. supreme court report of appellant decisions published by Thomson Reuters (West)
c. United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition L.Ed.
U.S. supreme court report of appellant decisions published by Matthew Bender member of the LexisNexis Group.
Step 1 Legal Research
analyze the problem and determine the most efficient manner in which to proceed
Step 2 in Legal Research
Conduct the Research
Step 3 in Legal Research
Evaluate the Results
Tools used for Law research
A. indexes, B. annotated codes, C. case digests, and D citators
Annotated codes
are powerful research tools.
statutory language
a wealth of information
Secondary sources
- no formal authority. They may have significant
persuasive authority - easier to begin with secondary sources
- They introduce the researcher to a particular area of
the law by explaining the issues involved, - provide citations to the primary source material, e.g.,
statutes - secondary sources: citation guides, legal dictionaries,
legal encyclopedias, books and treatises, law review
and journal articles, and topical services.
primary functions of secondary sources
Legal Dictionaries
language of the law: Black’s Law Dictionary and Ballentine’s Law Dictionary.
specialized areas of law, Education and the Law: A Dictionary.
