Introduction to Legal Research F14

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LEGAL RESEARCH I

FALL 2010

Professor Graves KrishnaswamiSeminars C & D

Wednesdays & Thursdays 9:55 amCornell Seminar Room

Introduction to Legal Research

Fifth Hour Legal Research ProgramFall 2014



First Year as a Lawyer

Legal Research (45%)

Other Work



Process of Legal Research Look at fact pattern and formulate an initial issue statement.

Issue statement = terms

5Ws Plus Who / What / Where / When / Why

TAPP = Things / Actions / People / Places

Jurisdiction/procedural posture/relief sought/legal theory applicable

Familiarize yourself w/area of law

If unfamiliar with the law, usually start with secondary sources

Locate, read and analyze primary authority, cases, statutes, administrativeregulations

Update primary authority to make sure still “good” law

Use a citator (Shepards, Keycite)

Revise as necessary, and find additional primary or secondary authority

Depends on what you find initially

Constantly evolving process as you sort through issues

Know when to stop (detailed notes will help you).



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5

Why Startwith

SecondarySources?

Secondary

authorityexplains thelaw.

Gateway toprimary

authority



HOW DO THE TYPES OF SECONDARYSOURCES DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER?

Specificity of coverage

Depth of coverage

Which secondary source you choosedetermined by stage of research you’re at aswell as what you’re looking for from thematerials

You will usually need to look at severalsecondary sources to determine what lawapplies to your research plan

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One Good Case Research Method

- Use the Headnotes

- Use the cases and other authority cited by the court (Tableof Authorities)

- Use the Citator (Shepards / Westlaw / Bcite) to findadditional authorities.

- Use the terms and words to build additional searches

One Good Statute Research Method

- Use the AnnotationsHeadnotes

CasesSecondary Sources- Use the Table of Contents

Read other statutes in the statutory scheme



Start Your Research:

Use What You KnowIssuestatement

Words Secondary Sources:DatabasesIndexTable of Contents

StatueAnnotations Secondary Sources

CasesRegulations

CaseHeadnotesCiting ReferencesCitatorsTable of Authorities

Secondary SourcesCrafting ArgumentsResearch elements issues



Good Law? Use a Citator1. Citator = Shepards (Lexis) / Keycite (Westlaw) / Bcite (BloombergLaw)

2. “it lists authorities that cite an authority that you have already found.Using citators is the most technical task -- and one of the mostimportant -- in legal research.” Kuntz, Process of LegalResearch(emphasis added).

3. a citator will indicate how “citing” cases viewed or used your “cited”case.2 Part Analysis of your case:

1. Subsequent History / Direct History of the case in hand (citedcase): what happened to your case as it progressed - Judgment Affirmed, Remanded, Pending

2. Treatment of the case in other courts: what did other courts say about your case- Distinguished, Overruled, Criticized, Cited, Mentioned,

Followed- Pay attention to jurisdiction of other court and issue

(headnote).

4. Using Citing Reference to locate additional authority.



Publication of the Law

Type of Law ChronologicalArrangement(by date)

Topical Arrangement(by topic)

Case Reporter

OfficialUnofficial

Digest

Headnotes

Statute US Statutes at Large CodesTitles = SubjectsOfficial (USC)Unofficial (USCA, USCS)

Annotations

Regulation Register, FederalRegister

Code, Code of FederalRegulations



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• When they resolve issues of law.

• Trial court cases usually revolve

around facts, and are therefore rarely

published.

• Intermediate court (appellate) cases

are published selectively, given that

many are routine and only of interest

to parties.

• Final appellate court (supreme court

/ court of last resort) cases are almost

always published, as they deal with

questions of law.

•

Unpublished cases are available onLexis and Westlaw.

PUBLICATION OF CASE LAW



Publication of Federal Case Law

Court Official

ReporterUnofficial Reporter

U.S.

Supreme

Court

United States

Reports =

U.S.

1.) Supreme Court Reporter (West)= S.

Ct.

2) Lawyers’ Edition (Lexis) = L. Ed.,L. Ed. 2d

U.S. Courts

of Appeal

N/A 1) Federal Reporter (West) = F., F. 2d,

F. 3d

U.S.

District

Courts

N/A 1) Federal Supplement (West) = F.

Supp., F. Supp. 2d



case law



Appellate and District

Court Opinions

Federal Reporter abbreviations

_ F. _

_ F.2d _ _ F.3d _

Federal Supplement abbreviations

_ F. Supp. _ _ F. Supp. 2d _



Unpublished Cases Federal Appendix (prints unpublished cases)

_ Fed. Appx. _

Available on Westlaw and Lexis:

2001 WL 1602030

2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 26786



Evaluating Sources: Subtle

Distinctions1. Precedential v. Non-Precedential / published v. non-published:

- Non-published/reported opinions are available in research databases- Non-published/reported opinions are available in the Federal

Appendix (unofficial reporter reporting federal cases)- FRCP 32.1 and local rules: different legal systems permit different legal

authority.- Remember, a high court decision is virtually always better than on-

point intermediate or trial court decision that’s unpublished (even ifmore factually on point – but you can still use the case for research).

2. Positive law v. Prima Facie Law- Use reputable official and unofficial codes and websites

- Read use the SOURCE3. Professor v. Student Law Reviews

- Animal Farm Principle: all secondary authority is persuasive but some ismore persuasive than others (e.g. Restatements, ALRs)

- Indicators of authority: author’s experience/education (not format).



Learn MoreMorris Cohen, Legal Research in a Nutshell (10th ed. West 2010). The Nutshell isavailable on course reserve in the law library and on L5 at call number: KF240.C54 2010. http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b1036421~S1 .

Mark K. Osbeck, Impeccable Research: A Concise Guide to Mastering LegalResearch Skills. This text is available on course reserve in the law library.

http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b1035252~S1 .

Kent Olson, Principles of Legal Research, 9th edition. This text is available oncourse reserve in the law library.http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b865545~S3*eng .

Research Guides, http://library.law.yale.edu/research-guides .

Online Tutorials, http://library.law.yale.edu/research/online-tutorials .

http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b1036421~S1


http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b865545~S3*eng

http://library.law.yale.edu/research-guides

http://library.law.yale.edu/research/online-tutorials













Statutory Research- Most issues involve statutes.

- Statutes take precedence over common law, and courts rely on

statutory language to resolve disputes, therefore if a statute involved,

locate it first.

- Locating statutes:

- Popular Names Table

- Cases

- Index

- Full text searching can be difficult.

- Use the annotations in an unofficial code (USCA/Weslaw; USCS/Lexis),

to locate secondary sources and case law.



Publication of Statutes

Slip Laws Session Laws Code (Bluebook Rule 12 &Table 1, p. 112, 19th ed.)

When a law is firstpublished.

Laws collected inchronological order(Stat.) (official)

United States Code (U.S.C.)(official)United States Code Annotated

(U.S.C.A.) (unofficial) (West)United States Code Service(U.S.C.S.) (official) (Lexis)

Codificiation = the Process of placing session laws into the subject codeof the jurisdiction. A session law may cover one — or more — subjectswhich are called Titles.



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Introduction to Legal Research F14

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