Law Refresher IA

Part IA Homework Review – April 2

Part II – April 23

Primary Sources of Law

Cases Statutes Regulations

-------------------------------- Federal State

U.S. Court System

U.S. District Courts – trial courts U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal – intermediate

appellate courts U.S. Supreme Court

Case Reporters

U.S. District Courts– Federal Supplement (F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d)

U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal– Federal Reporter (F., F.2d, F.3d)

U.S. Supreme Court Case Reporters

United States Reports (U.S.)– Published by U.S. government

United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition (L.Ed., L.Ed.2d)– Published by LexisNexis

Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.)– Published by West

Case Citation Form

Gonzales v. Williams, 192 U.S. 1,

24 S.Ct. 177, 48 L.Ed. 317 (1904).

First number = volume of case reporter

Second number = page number of first page of decision

Case Digests

Organized by legal subject West key number Includes abstract of case and citation to case

reporter Multivolume descriptive word index

Federal Practice Digest Atlantic Digest

Why Can’t I Find the Case?

Trial court decisions – small % published– State trial court decisions rarely published (except

New Jersey and Pennsylvania); courthouse copy

Case settled – no opinion Jury trial – jury verdict form only; not published Unpublished opinion

– Written opinion but judge decides not to publish; copy available at courthouse

Federal Statutes

United States Code (U.S.C.)– Published by U.S. government

United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.)– Published by LexisNexis– Princeton does not own print version

United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.)– Published by West

Statutory Citation Forms

39 U.S.C. § 3001(k)(3).

39 U.S.C.A. § 3001(k)(3) (Supp. 2002).

39 U.S.C.S. § 3001(k)(3).

First number = number of title in code

Second number = number of section or subsection

Federal Regulations

Federal Register (Fed. Reg.)– Published every business day– Proposed regulations, final regulations and

comments

Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.)– Organized by subject

Regulation Citation Form

30 C.F.R. § 57.5001 (2002).

First number = no. of title in C.F.R.

Second number = no. of section within title

Hint: If the citation contains a period, it is likely a citation to the C.F.R.

New Jersey Court System

New Jersey Superior Court, Civil, Family, Equity and Criminal Divisions – trial court

– New Jersey Superior Court Reports (N.J. Super.)– Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)

New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division– New Jersey Superior Court Reports (N.J. Super.)– Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)

New Jersey Supreme Court– New Jersey Reports (N.J.) – Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)

Older New Jersey Cases (prior to 1948)

New Jersey Law Reports (N.J.L.) New Jersey Equity Reports (N.J. Eq.) New Jersey Miscellaneous Reports (N.J. Misc.)

New Jersey Case Citation

ACLU of New Jersey, Inc. v. County of Hudson, 352 N.J. Super. 44, 799 A.2d 629 (2002).

Parallel citation: first to the official state reporter, then to regional reporter

New Jersey Statutes

New Jersey Statutes Annotated

N.J.S.A. § 18A:73-43.2 (2002).

18A = number of title

73 = number of chapter

43.2 = number of section

New Jersey Regulations

New Jersey Register (N.J. Reg.) New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J. Admin.

Code)

Verifying Law is Current

Shepard’s– Shepardizing– By LexisNexis

KeyCite– By Westlaw

Electronic Availability

All published federal and state case law since 1789 (even some unpublished)

Nearly all codified federal and state statutes since about 1990

All federal laws since 1789 Nearly all law reviews since early 1990’s

– Major law reviews since first volume (Hein)

Why Use Print?

Statutory research Case Digests Legal encyclopedias

Putting It All Together

Inexperienced Researchers– Let secondary sources guide researcher through

cases and statutes– Secondary Sources

Legal encyclopedias Law Reviews and Journals

Experienced Researchers– Statutes and Regulations– Then Cases

Law Refresher – Part IIApril 23rd

Secondary Sources– Law review databases– Legal encyclopedias