Term
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Definition
- constitutions
- statutes (from legislative brach)
- court opinions aka common law (judicial branch)
- administrative regulations (executive branch) |
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Term
| Definition and examples of Primary authority |
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Definition
| the language of law itself - constitution, statutes, administrative regulations, case law in relevant jurisdiction |
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Term
| Definition and examples of Secondary authority |
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Definition
| commentary or analysis of the law - treatises, opinions, journal articles |
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Term
| What is mandatory (binding) authority? |
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Definition
| court is obligated to consider - case law from higher authority or statutes |
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Term
| What is persuasive authority? |
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Definition
| the court can consider but is not required to - always persuasive |
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Term
| Legal Research Process - 3 steps Before you begin |
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Definition
1) Identify scope of research considering time restrictions and results desired.
2) Generate search terms using the parties, places, things, defenses, claims and actions you're working with
3) Select and eliminate sources |
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Term
| Legal Research Process -3 Overall steps |
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Definition
1. Background Research
2. Specific Fact Research
3. Verification Research |
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Term
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Definition
1. Gives a broad overview of issues for an unfamiliar topic
2. Looking for primary persuasive authority but don't have a jurisdiction
3. Researching and undeveloped area of law
4. Search of primary authority yielded too many or not enough results
5. Practice pointers
6. Find different legal theories on a topic |
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Term
| Limits of Secondary Sources |
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Definition
1. Not binding in courts
2. Still have to read the primary authority
3. May not be current
4. Not an end point |
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Term
| Two main legal encyclopedias |
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Definition
American Jurisprudence
Corpus Juris Secundum |
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Term
| Pro/Con of Legal Encyclopedia |
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Definition
Pro - Good for background info and general overview
Con - No analysis, not generally citable |
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Term
| How to Research Legal Encyclopedias |
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Definition
1. Topic Outline method - use one or both of the outlines in the front of the book (one more specific)
or
2. Index Method
3. Check the pocket part for updates
4. If needed check the correlation table for references to sections in older volumes |
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Term
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Definition
| Find if a case has been 1. Reported 2. Appealed 3. Referred to by other cases - can be overruled, distinguished, affirmed, explained, ignored 4. Link to other sources |
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Term
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Definition
1. Introduction
2. Table of Contents
3. Topic Outlines
4. List of abbreviations
5. Index
6. Table of Cases/Statutes
7. Text
8. Some form of updating |
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Term
| 9 steps for Research Methodology by subject matter in Reporters |
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Definition
1. Find the appropriate digest by date and jurisdiction
2. Use the DWI (Descriptive Word Index) to get Topic and Key Number
3. Look in pocket part of DWI
4. Go to the Topic Volume and find the key number
5. Read "Case Summaries" (headnotes)
6. Check Pocket Part of the Topic Volume
7. Go to the reporters
8. Read Syllabus and headnotes
9. Read case |
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Term
| Research Methodology by Case |
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Definition
1. Find the right Digest by date and jurisdiction
2. Go to table of cases
3. Check pocket part
4. Find citation for the case
5. Go the reporter |
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Term
| Researching a Word Definition in Reporters |
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Definition
1. Find the right Digest
2. Find the Words and Phrases volume
3. Check the pocket part
4. Find citation
5. Look up in Reporter |
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Term
| Treatises . . . what are they good for? |
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Definition
| Some like hornbooks are good for getting black letter law but aren't citable. More in depth books can be very persuasive depending on the author. Also can get cites to primary and secondary authority. |
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Term
| Where can you research Legal Periodicals? |
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Definition
Online - Index to Legal Periodicals and LegalTrac on Law Library page
ILP and CLI are also in print. |
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Term
| What is Hein Online good for? |
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Definition
| Finding full text of older law review articles that aren't on Westlaw or Lexis. |
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Term
| What are American Law Reports good for? |
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Definition
1. Getting the results of cases
2. Good Secondary Source because of the annotations but shouldn't cite. |
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Term
| What are the Restatements? |
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Definition
| A collection of the rule of majority for various legal issues written by legal scholers. It also identifies emerging and proposed rules. Based on case law but not legal authority unless adopted by courts. |
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Term
| What are uniform law and model acts? |
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Definition
| Proposed statutes to be adopted by the legislature. The Uniform Laws Annotated collects and indexes them. They include tables to show where they have been adopted. |
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Term
| How to research Treatises |
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Definition
| Use Minerva to search by author, title, or subject. |
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Term
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Definition
| Don't use the first two series. Start with the "ALR Index" volumes, find the reference to the annotation and check the pocket part. |
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Term
| Pros and Cons of free online sites for cases, regulations and statutes. |
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Definition
Pros - can get published within minutes of a slip opinion being issued
Cons - awkward to use, not as searchable, not retrospective |
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Term
| Methods of using Terms and Connectors search |
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Definition
1. Synonyms
2. Booleyan connectors (and, but, or)
3. Proximity connectors
4. Truncation
5. Wild Cards
6. Field Searching
7. Quotation marks to search for phrases |
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Term
| How does a case get from the judges opinion to the final reporter? |
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Definition
| First appears as slip opinion. No editorial content. Publisher turns those into advance sheets and adds editorial content (same citation as final volume). Then it goes to the Final bound volume UNLESS it's the Supreme Court Reporter. Then it goes to the Interim Volume first. |
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Term
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Definition
| arranges and summarizes reporters by topic. organized by jurisdiction and date. |
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Term
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Definition
1. Select the right digest - the most recent one in the narrowest jurisdiction.
2. Locate relevant topics - can use headnotes from other case, the DWI, go straight to the topic, cases by party name or Words and Phrases (for definitions)
3. read the case summaries
4. update |
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Term
| What is the Decennial Digest? |
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Definition
| A digest of ALL reported cases. Monstrous. Difficult to use. Updated w/separate digests. |
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Term
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Definition
| USC (official) USCA-West, USCS - Lexis |
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Term
| How many titles in the USC? |
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Definition
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Term
| How is the code organized? |
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Definition
| The code is divided by Titles (subjects) and organized alphabetically. Each title is divided into numerical sections. These are broken up into chapters that define that topic but the chapter isn't cited |
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Term
| What date do you cite when referencing a Statute/Code? |
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Definition
| Date of publication of the book you used. |
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Term
| Two publications of KY State Statutes |
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Definition
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Term
| Steps to Research Federal Administrative Law |
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Definition
1. Go to the Code of Federal Regulations. CFR
2. Look at the Index
3. Go to the Chapter (might get Section nmber too)
4. Look in the volume
5. Look at the LSA (List Sections affected)
6. If there is something look at the Federal Register for the update |
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Term
| Researching Federal Administrative Law online |
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Definition
1. Law Library
2. Legal Research
3. Federal Resources
4. Code of Federal Regulations
5. search by CFR cite or by subject
6. Check status on Federal Register page for updates |
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Term
| Researching State Statuses |
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Definition
1. Go to the Kentucky Administrative Regulation
2. Look at the index
3. Pull Volume by chapter/section number from index
4. Check Administrative Register of KY for updates |
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Term
| 5 parts of a case published in West |
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Definition
1. Heading - parallel citation to official reporter, case name, court, date
2. synopsis of the decision
3. Headnotes
4. Names of atty's and judge/judges
5. opinion of court/ concurring/ disenting opinion |
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