Legal
Research Class Notes
The
exam is on Monday morning at
We’ll
go over the exam more tomorrow.
There
will be 26 questions that will comprise 60% of the grade. 40% of the grade is the essay. You have about 20 minutes to write the essay
and 40 minutes to do the questions.
Actually, it’s more like 24 minutes for the essay and 36 minutes for the
short answer questions.
Don’t
use The Cheat on any
of your law school exams.
We’ll
finish the Bluebook exercise, do a “synthesis” of the class, and then go over
some fact patterns that may be useful for the test.
Outline
of the course
I.
Primary Sources (the law itself)
a. Statutes from the
legislative branch (Codes)
i.
Federal
1.
2. USCA and USCS
3. Court
structure
a. District
Courts
b. Appellate
Courts
c. Supreme Court
ii.
State
1.
2. Annotated
Codes
3. Court
structure
a. Supreme Court
(can be called other things)
b. Intermediate
appellate courts
c. Trial courts
b. Case law from
the judicial branch (Reporters)
i.
Federal
1. Federal
Reporter
2. Federal
Supplement
ii.
State
1. State
reporters
2. Regional
reporters
c. Regulations from
the executive branch (Administrative codes)
II.
Secondary Sources (writings about the law)
a. Legal
encyclopedias
b. Journals and
other legal periodicals
c. Treatises
d. ALR (annotated
reporters)
e. Restatements
of the Law
f. Uniform laws
III.
Finding Tools (help you find primary and secondary
sources)
a. In print
i.
Digests
ii.
Indices
b. Electronic
format
i.
Full text systems with wide coverage
1. Lexis
2. Westlaw
3. Liabilities
a. Don’t go back
that far
b. Limited
breadth
c. Expensive
ii.
Sites on the WWW
1. All states and
federal government have individual websites
2. Government
materials are in the public domain
a. Can be printed
by anyone
b. Be
careful! People can mess around with
government documents
IV.
Updating the law – Do not rely on old cases, statutes,
or regulations
Synthesis
I.
Analysis
a. What facts do
you have?
b. What issues
can you spot?
c. What jurisdiction
are you in?
d. How much time is
available?
II.
Overview
a. Look at
secondary sources to get a general idea of the field you’re researching
b. You can skip
this if you’re already an expert
III.
Find and read the law
a. Statutes first
because they are annotated, then regulations second and case law thir
b. Go back to
secondary sources to clarify issues you don’t understand
IV.
Update – use Shepard’s, KeyCite, pocket parts, the Federal
Register etc.
V.
When to stop
a. When you have
found the answer and have done extra research to answer additional corollary questions
b. When you have
looked everywhere important
c. When the cost
exceeds the benefit
d. When you begin
to get citations to the same stuff