Research Flashcards
What two main functions do citators serve?
Used to update authority to make sure it is still good law and as finding tools to locate other primary and secondary authority.
What are citators?
Shepard’s and keynote
Official codes?
- Published by a gov’t org or a designated publisher
- Published less frequently
Primary authority
Rules of law
Secondary authority
Commentary or analysis of law but not the law itself.
Unofficial codes
- Published by private publishers
- Published more frequently
- Contain annotations to cases, related admin materials, and pertinent secondary materials.
Is primary authority mandatory or persuasive?
Both. Can be either, mandatory within jurisdiction, persuasive outside of jurisdiction.
Is secondary authority mandatory or persuasive?
It can be either, it can become mandatory if a court adopts it.
How can secondary sources be useful?
They are useful to understand the law
Get a high-level overview
Find citations to cases, statutes, and other authority
Save time and money
What are the two national legal encyclopedias
American jurisprudence
Corpus Juris Secundum
Organized alphabetically by topic
What are ALRs?
American Law Reports, articles called annotations.
What is an annotation?
Summaries of cases from a variety of jurisdictions to provide and overview of the law on a topic- rarely contain analysis or commentary.
Four ways to locate legal periodicals online.
LegalTrac
Index to Legal Periodicals
Hein Online
Lexis And Westlaw
What is the book browse function?
On lexis and Westlaw.
Search forward and backward from all relevant sections of the code.
If a statute controls your issue, how can you figure out what the words in the statute mean?
Definitions section of statute Cases interpreting the statute Plain meaning of statute Canons of construction Legislative history-- what the drafters intended the words to mean.
What is the West Key Number system, how is it organized, and why is it useful?
For west digests, the points of law are integrated into the overall digest system by classifying each according to topic and assigning it a key number. The key number consists of a topic word or phrase and a au topic number.
Key topic and number allows you to access a variety of cases in the digest system that have been categorized as having a similar issue or point of law.
The topic, key topic and key number that you find in a west digest will correspond exactly to a head note at the beginning of a case published in a west reporter or on westlaw.
Binding authority
Law that a judge must examine or evaluate.
Persuasive authority
Law a judge may examine or evaluate
How are statutes published?
Slip Laws
Session Laws
Slip laws
Hot off the press
Session laws
Statutes at Large
Laws in chronological order in a given legislative session. Only good if you know the date already.
Codes
US CODE:
- federal code
- organized by subject matter.
- Codified law.
How do you find statutes?
Popular name table
Table of contents (not very helpful)
Title browsing
Index: topically oriented. All codes have one. Searchable indexes.
How are cases published?
Chronological in jurisdiction specific reporters.
Chronological in regional reporters
Most have an associated set of digests that classify cases by subject.
Digests
West system. Identifies points of law from reported cases and organizes them by topic and key number.
Get a case, use digest, find other case using same or similar head notes
Legal/encore
Law review articles
HeinOnline
Full text PDFs of legal periodicals
Use when already have a cite
Most law reviews but not more obscure ones
LegalTrac
Indexing service with super useful search engine get citation and take it to HeinOnline
Electronic indexing service
Indexes of articles from 1980
Not extensive full PDFs
Secondary sources examples (2)
Treatises/ hornbooks
Restatements
Law review articles
Treatises/ hornbooks
In depth single subject
Overview and analysis
Restatement
13 subjects only Published by American Law Institute Judge-made law into rules not trends in the law Recommends where law ought to go Very persuasive Can become law
Law review articles
Thorough thoughtful treatment of discrete issues
Not updated
Secondary sources examples (1)
American jurisprudence
Corpus Juris Secundum
ALR
Update authority
Shepards (Lexis)
Keycite (Westlaw)
Ways to find cases
1 Annotated codes
2 jurisdiction specific digest
3 secondary sources
4 once good case
- Keycite/ Shepardize
- custom search firm more cases using headnote/ key citeBinding authority
Judge MUST examine
Persuasive authority
Judge MAY examine
Primary authority
Establishes law on a given issue
Statute, regulation, case, constitution, treaty, executive order.
Secondary authority
Insight into primary authority
Commentary
