Define:

Primary Authority

Define: 

Seondary Authority

Define: 

Mandatory Authority

• law that hte courts/people are obligated to follow
• cases decided by higher courts, or statutes passed by the legislature

Define:

Persuasive Authority

• any laws that courts/people are not obligated to follow
• authority from another jurisdiction

Define:

Codification

1. Plan ot your search beforehand
2. Limit your search to the appropriate forum so that you don't have to sift through irrelevant or inapplicable results
3. Start in free resources
4. Know and understand your billing plan

• Search in plain English
• The computer does the work for you
• Results are ranked according to relevancy
• Good for finding background info
• Helping when searching in an area of law that you are unfamiliar with

• an * is a place hlder which represents any letter
• helpful when there is more than one spelling of a word or you are unsure of the spelling

Interpret the meaning of:

Public Law Number 91-103

• Public laws are also called statutes, legislation, or acts
• 91-103 means 91st Congress, 103 bill passed

• U.S. Statutes at Large is the OFFICIAL Federal Session Laws
• 3-5 year lag in publishing
• no general index, just an index to the entire Congressional session

1. U.S. Code of Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN)

• Published by West
• Good source for selective legislative history
• Monthly pamphlets are reissued in bound volumes after each congressioal session

1. Advanced Pamphlets to the United States Code Service

• Published by Lexis

• OFFICIAL
• Divided into 51 broad topics
• Published every 6 (SIX) years, but is updated annually

• Published by WEST
• Title and section number are the same as USC
• Has summaries about how the courts interpret the statute
• Has comprehensive coverage of decisions

WEST!!

• Check the pocket parts and pamphlets
• Online: click the currentness to see when it was last updated

United Staces Code Service

• Published by LEXIS
• Titles and section numbers are same as USC
• Often provide longer annotations, especially if case is considered particularly relevant
• More references to administrative cases and regulations

• USCS is published by LEXIS
• Does NOT include a comprehensive list of cases, it provides only what the editors deem as relevant cases

SLIP LAW

1. Arrangement
2. Primary Use
3. Publication
4. Citation

SLIP LAW

1. Arrangement: individual sheets
2. Primary use: imediate access; reference
3. Publication: individual sheets/pamphlets
4. Citation: # of Congress - Public Law # (ie 98-83)

SESSION LAWS

1. Arrangement
2. Primary use
3. Publication
4. Citation

SESSION LAWS

1. Arrangement: chronological
2. Primary use: authoritative version; historical view
3. Publication: statututes at large (official); USCAN (WEST); UCSC (LEXIS)
4. Citation: 107 Stat. 123 (official); 2002 USCAN 1701 (West)

STATUTORY CODES

1. Arrangement
2. Primary Use
3. Publication 
4. Citation

STATUTORY CODES

1. Arrangement: topically
2. Primary Use: research; broach overview
3. Publlication: United States Code (official); USCA (West); USCS (Lexis)

• created to implement and enforce government policies
• part of the executive branch
• they hav qusi-legislative, executive, and judicial powers
• REGULATIONS HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW

The Federal Register

(Fed. Reg.)

• OFFICIAL
• Arranged alphabetically by agency
• Published Monday-Friday
• Contains all agency documents

The Code of the Federal Register

(CFR)

• OFFICIAL
• Codified version of all final regulations in the Fed. Reg
• Arranged topically nad divided into 50 titles
• Published yearly on a staggered basis

1. Slip opinion
2. Advanced sheets
3. Bound reporter volume

• A pamphlet containing only the text of the opinion in one case
• The slip opinion is separately paginated and not indexed
• Also published onlin on the court's website

• Pamphlets that update reporters with the most recent cases
• Advance sheets contain the same pagination and editorial information as the reporter they update

• When enough cases have been published in the advance sheets a new bound volume is published
• Uses the same volume and page numbers as the advance sheets
• Published chronologically in the order in which they were decided, without regard to Subject

• Used to find where a case would be in another reporter