Legal Research

Question 1

What does it mean for primary law to be “Mandatory”

Answer 1

Refers to the amount of weight that it must be given in the decision-miaking process. Carries the most weight, must be followed within the legal system to which it applies.

Question 2

List some sources that Primary Law include

Answer 2

1) Constitutions
2) Statutes
3) Case law
4) rules of procedure
5) rules of evidence
6) administrative rules
7) court rules
8) executive orders

Question 3

Name the primary legal publishers in the U.S.

Answer 3

West Publishing Co and Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co.

Question 4

What is the difference between Substantive and Procedural law?

Answer 4

Substantive defines the rights and duties that govern a society. Procedural (or adjective) prescribes the manner in which the substantive laws should be carried out.

Question 5

What determines whether a case is precedent?

Answer 5

1) It’s facts and legal issues were substantially similar to the facts of the case before the court in the instant case.
2) It was decided by majority decision of a higher court of that jurisdiction
3) The case was reported

Question 6

The U.S. Constitution can be found _______?

Answer 6

At the front of the U.S. Code

Question 7

What is a Slip Law?

Answer 7

Refers to when a Bill becomes adopted, meaning that it is printed singly rather than as a part of a group of laws.

Question 8

What are “Session Laws”?

Answer 8

At the close of each legislative session, all slip laws enacted during that session are arranged in chronological order according to date of enactment and published in this.

Question 9

Statutes are generally collected into a statutory code better known as ______

Answer 9

Codified. The code arranges the statutes and their amendments by topic (subject matter)

Question 10

Federal session laws (Statutes) are published in the ________?

Answer 10

Statutes at Large (Stat.) –> The only complete collection of federal statutory law. Compiled chronologically.

They are also codified and published in the U.S. States Code (U.S.C.) –> this is selective (Not every statute is included). compiled by code.

Question 11

What does it mean to be an OFFICIAL Publication?

Answer 11

When an official body (e.g. Congress) authorizes and directs the collection and publication of law.

Stat. and U.S.C. are Official

Question 12

What does it mean to be an UNOFFICIAL Publications?

Answer 12

When it is not specifically authorized or sanctioned by an official body but rather is compiled by a private publisher. Its status only refers to the source of the publication, not accuracy.

West Publishing Co (West) publishes the United States Code Annotated and Lawyers Co-Op Publishers publishes United States Code Service

Question 13

United States Code Ann., like all West publications, use _____ to aid the researcher

Answer 13

Key Number System –> Every topic and subtopic is assigned its own key #

Question 14

United States Code Service utilizes ______?

Answer 14

Annotations –> Explanatory note

Question 15

WIthin the Federal System, rules and regulations of administrative agencies are published _______?

Answer 15

Chronologically in the Federal Register (Fed. Reg.) at the time of their adoption. They are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.)

Question 16

What does “de novo” mean?

Answer 16

“anew,” “from the beginning”; Case is tried in the appellate court as if it had not been tried previously, and witnesses are allowed to testify.

Question 17

What does “de novo on the record” mean?

Answer 17

“anew on the record”; the appellate court must base its decision on the record (no new testimony can be received) but may reach an independent factual finding if the facts from the trial court are clearly erroneous based on the record as a whole.

Question 18

What is meant by “on the record”

Answer 18

The appellate court reviews the record for prejudicial legal errors committed in the trial court but gives great deference to the findings of fact.

Question 19

What does the “record” consist of?

Answer 19

Pleadings from the court file of the trial court and the recorded transcript of the trial proceedings, including the exhibits offered during the trial.

Question 20

What are the elements of a reported case?

Answer 20

1) Caption
2) Date of decision
3) Parallel citation(s)
4) Headnote or Syllabus
5) Statements of Facts
6) Opinion (includes holding, rationale and dicta)
7) Holding (rule of law for which the case is cited as precedent)
8) Rationale –> Ratio Decidendi (court’s reasoning or basis for its holdings and decision)
9) Dicta –> Obiter Dictum (comments of the court about minor issues or concerns other than the specific holding, rationale, and decision. Dicta is NEVER cited as precedent)
10) Decision

Question 21

What is a slip opinion?

Answer 21

Issued when a federal court first decides a case. This is a single opinion of the court issued without headnotes and without indexing.

Question 22

What are advance sheets?

Answer 22

meaning in advance of the next bound volume of the case reporter series. the slip opinions are collected and published into this softbound or looseleaf format.

Question 23

What are the 2 advance sheets in which the slip opinions are are collected and published?

Answer 23

United States Law Week (U.S.L.W.) published by the bureau of national affairs and The United States Supreme Court Bulletin published by Commerce Clearing House.

Question 24

What are the 3 case reporters for U.S. Supreme Court cases?

Answer 24

1) United States Reports (cited U.S.) –> Official Case Reporter for the U.S. Supreme Court
2) Supreme Court Reporter, (cited S. Ct.) –> Unofficial case reporter. Does Not Contain Decisions prior to 1882 but does contain star paging to the U.S. Reports
3) United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition (cited L. Ed. or L. Ed. 2d) –> Unofficial Case Reporter. The only supreme court reporter to include summaries of the briefs of counsel. Annotations begin with Volume 92

Question 25

The only case reporter for federal court of appeals is _______ (official or unofficial)?

Answer 25

Unofficial and published by West.

Federal Reporter, Third Series (Cited F.3d) –>1993- Present

Federal Reporter, Second Series (Cited F.2d) –> 1924 - 1993

Federal Reporter, (cited F.) –> 1880 - 1924

Federal Cases, (cited F. Cas.) –> 1789 - 1880

Question 26

The only case reporter for federal district courts is ____ (official or unofficial)?

Answer 26

Unofficial and published by West. Reporting is selective, not all cases are included.

Federal Supplement (Cited F. Supp.) –> 1932 - Present

Federal Reporter, Second Series (cited F.2d) –> 1924 - 1932)

Federal Reporter (Cited F.) –> 1880 - 1924

Federal Cases (Cited F. Cas.) –> 1789 - 1880

Question 27

The U.S. Court of International Trade was formerly called ________?

Answer 27

U.S. Customs Court

Cases decided here are selectively reported in the Federal Supplement

Question 28

At the state level, cases are reported for what courts only?

Answer 28

The highest appellate court and intermediate appellate courts ONLY (With the exception of NY and CA)

Question 29

What makes something Secondary law?

Answer 29

it is persuasive but not madatory (binding) within a particular jurisdiction

Question 30

Name 2 Legal Encyclopedias

Answer 30

1) Corpus Juris Secundum (cited C.J.S.) tied to the key numbering system and is heavily footnoted with legal authorities.
2) American Jurisprudence, Second Series (Cited AM. Jur. 2d) which contains more narrative and not as many footnotes.

Question 31

What is the American Law Reports?

Answer 31

Leading annotated law reporter. Published by Lawyers Co-op. It DOES NOT attempt to report every case or most cases only those state appellate court cases which are significant (Indicates change in the law or new trend in legal thinking). Key feature is the Annotations

Question 32

Who publishes Restatements of Law?

Answer 32

American Law Institute (A.L.I.)

Question 33

What are the 2 common legal dictionaries?

Answer 33

Blacks Law Dictionary and Ballentine’s Law Dictionary.

Question 34

What is a treatise?

Answer 34

Sometimes called a hornbook, it is a single -volume text written by a legal scholar in a given topic area.

Question 35

What is a digest?

Answer 35

A finding tool used to locate case law. It reprints the headnote summaries of points of law found in reported cases and classifies them by subject, using pre-defined categories established by the publisher.

Question 36

What is the citation format for the U.S. Constitution?

Answer 36

U.S. Const. art. [article #] seciton 2, cl. 3

U.S. Const. amend. [Amendment #], Section [#]

Question 37

What is the citation for Federal Statutes?

Answer 37

15 U.S.C.section 1692 (year of code volume)

Question 38

What is the citation for the procedural Rules?

Answer 38

Rules of Civil Procedure: Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6)

Rules of Criminal Procedure: Fed. R. Crim. P. 42

Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure: Fed. R. App. P. 2.

Federal Rules of Evidence: Fed. R. Evid. 410

Question 39

How do you cite a U.S. Supreme Court Case

Answer 39

[1st party] v. [2nd party], [reporter volume] [Reporter] [First page of the case], [specific page referred to] [Date of decision]

Question 40

What is the difference between citing Federal government and State government?

Answer 40

When a federal government is a party it is to be identified as “United States” (NOT U.S. or USA)

When a state government is a party, it is identified in the case name as “State”

Question 41

How would you identify the Internal Revenue Service in a citation?

Answer 41

Commissioner (NEVER USE “IRS”)

Question 42

When should you NOT use parallel citations?

Answer 42

When citing to U.S. Supreme Court