Legal Research Review Professor Lisa Smith-Butler Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law Center Law Library & Technology Center 2007
Legal Research Review
Professor Lisa Smith-ButlerNova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law
CenterLaw Library & Technology Center
2007
Introduction Beginning your legal career means that you will need to know
how to cost effectively perform legal research as well as other types of research. Depending upon the type of practice in which you work, you may also need to know how to do medical, business, or scientific research.
When researching the law, you will need to locate both primary and secondary sources of law.
Primary sources of law constitute the law itself and can be used as a basis for legal decisions.
You will also encounter secondary sources of law which help explain and locate the law but do not constitute the law.
Introduction Today we will review:
research strategies; primary sources of authority; case finding tools; citators; & secondary sources.
Research Strategies Before beginning any research project, ask
yourself: Is a letter, memo, or brief required? What are the cost and time restraints? What is the issue in dispute? What research terms should be used? Is state or federal law involved? Is statutory or common law involved? Are cases, regulations or statutes needed? Did you update your research?
Research Strategies WorksheetPrepared by Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law CenterLaw Library & Technology Center
Client & Client Case Number: Supervising Attorney: Date Project Due: Cost Constraints: Time Constraints: Westlaw/Lexis/Lois Law Permitted: End Product: ( ) Opinion Letter ( ) Memo ( ) Brief ( ) Other
Background facts:
Issues to be researched:
Research terms to be used:
Type of information required:
� Federal or state or a combination:F Cases, statutes, or regulations or a combination:C Secondary sources;S Non-legal sources:
Primary Sources Utilized:
Secondary Sources Utilized:
Updated via:
Prepared by Lisa Smith-Butler
Research Strategies WorksheetPrepared by Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law CenterLaw Library & Technology Center
Client & Client Case Number: Supervising Attorney: Date Project Due: Cost Constraints: Time Constraints: Westlaw/Lexis/Lois Law Permitted: End Product: ( ) Opinion Letter ( ) Memo ( ) Brief ( ) Other
Background facts:
Issues to be researched:
Research terms to be used:
Type of information required:
T Federal or state or a combination:F Cases, statutes, or regulations or a combination:C Secondary sources;S Non-legal sources:
Primary Sources Utilized:
Secondary Sources Utilized:
Updated via:
Prepared by Lisa Smith-Butler
Research Strategies WorksheetPrepared by Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law CenterLaw Library & Technology Center
Client & Client Case Number: Supervising Attorney: Date Project Due: Cost Constraints: Time Constraints: Westlaw/Lexis/Lois Law Permitted: End Product: ( ) Opinion Letter ( ) Memo ( ) Brief ( ) Other
Background facts:
Issues to be researched:
Research terms to be used:
Type of information required:
T Federal or state or a combination:F Cases, statutes, or regulations or a combination:C Secondary sources;S Non-legal sources:
Primary Sources Utilized:
Secondary Sources Utilized:
Updated via:
Prepared by Lisa Smith-Butler
Research Strategies WorksheetPrepared by Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law CenterLaw Library & Technology Center
Client & Client Case Number: Supervising Attorney: Date Project Due: Cost Constraints: Time Constraints: Westlaw/Lexis/Lois Law Permitted: End Product: ( ) Opinion Letter ( ) Memo ( ) Brief ( ) Other
Background facts:
Issues to be researched:
Research terms to be used:
Type of information required:
T Federal or state or a combination:F Cases, statutes, or regulations or a combination:C Secondary sources;S Non-legal sources:
Primary Sources Utilized:
Secondary Sources Utilized:
Updated via:
Prepared by Lisa Smith-Butler
Sources of Primary Authority In American law, there are three sources of
primary authority. They are: Cases
Statutes Regulations
Cases Cases are decided by the courts, the judicial
branch of the government. Courts construe the meaning of the common law
and interpret the disputed meanings of statutory and/or regulatory provisions.
The doctrine of Stare Decisis is vital to American law.
In the U.S., a dual system of state and federal courts exists.
Hierarchy of Federal Courts Federal courts are organized in three tiers:
U.S. District Courts U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal U.S. Supreme Court
Hierarchy of Federal Courts Trial courts are known as district courts.
These courts provide the entry level into the federal court system.
Here cases are tried with witnesses. Physical evidence is presented. Pleadings, answers, and motions are filed.
Fort Lauderdale is in the Southern District of Florida.
Hierarchy of Federal Courts U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal are the next
tier or level of the federal court system. Circuit Courts decide issues of law rather
than issues of fact. Florida is in the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is in Atlanta, GA.
Emory’s Federal Courts Finder
Hierarchy of Federal Courts The final court within the federal system is
the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court has both
appellate and original jurisdiction. The original jurisdiction is extremely limited.
Federal Courts Where can you find decisions from federal district
courts? Print decisions are published in the F. Supp. In Westlaw, these decisions can be found in the DCT
databases. In Lexis, these decisions can be found in the Federal
Legal US Library, District Courts file. On the Internet, some of these decisions can be found at
the Federal Judiciary site at http://www.uscourts.gov
Federal Courts Decisions from U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal are
published in the following: Print decisions are published in the Federal Reporter (F., F.2d,
F.3d) series. In Westlaw, the decisions can be found in the CTA databases. In Lexis, the decisions are in the Federal Legal US library and
Circuit Courts file. On the Internet, use Emory’s Federal Courts Finder at
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDCTS/ for cases from 1994 – 2003. After March 2003, use the 11th Circuit site at http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/index.php .
You can also check U.S. Courts/Federal Judiciary site at http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/ for decisions.
Federal Courts U.S. Supreme Court decisions are
published in print in the following formats: initially as a single decision in a format known as
a slip opinion; in paperback books known as Advance Sheets;
and in the bound reporters known as the United
States Reports, U.S.
Federal Courts U.S. Supreme Court decisions are
published in both bound and loose leaf services. The publications are: Supreme Court Reporter, S.Ct. United States Reports, U.S. (Official) United States Reports, Lawyer’s Edition,
L.Ed. United States Law Week, U.S.L.W. (Loose
Leaf)
Federal Courts Supreme Court decisions can be found in
Westlaw’s SCT database. Supreme Court decisions via Lexis can be
found in the Federal Legal US library and the Supreme Court Cases file.
Federal Courts Several Internet sites also provide access to the
U.S. Supreme Court decisions. These decisions can be found at: U.S. Supreme Court official site at
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ Cornell’s Legal Information Institute at
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/ Fedworld’s Flite database at
http://www.fedworld.gov/supct/index.htm Findlaw at http://www.findlaw.com/ Oyez, Oyez, Oyez at http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage/
Florida State Courts Decisions from the
Florida Supreme Court and the District Courts of Appeal are initially published in the print source, Florida Law Weekly.
These decisions are later published in the regional reporter known as the Southern Reporter, S., S.2d, series.
Selected decisions from Florida’s trial courts are published in the Florida Law Supplement.
Florida State Courts On Westlaw, these decisions can be
accessed via the FL-CS database. On Lexis, use the FL library and select the
FLACTS file. On the Internet, Florida’s Supreme and
appellate court decisions can be located at http://www.flcourts.org/
State Courts Decisions from various states’ Supreme Courts can also
be found in various print and electronic sources. Print decisions are located in appropriate state reporters,
and they are also available in regional reporters. There are seven regional reporters: Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d) North Eastern Reporter (N.E., N.E.2d) North Western Reporter (N.W., N.W.2d) Pacific Reporter (P., P.2d, P. 3d) South Eastern Reporter (S.E., S.E.2d) South Western Reporter (S.W., S.W. 2d, S.W.3d) Southern Reporter (S., S.2d)
State Courts Decisions on Westlaw are available in the
appropriate state database and in Lexis in the appropriate state library.
State court decisions are also available on the low cost Internet legal subscription services Lois Law and Versus Law.
State court decisions can also be found on Findlaw at http://www.findlaw.com or Washlaw at http://www.washlaw.edu/.
Case Finding Tools As demonstrated, cases can be located in a
variety of sources, both print and electronic. Now that you know where cases are published, how do you find cases? You can locate a case by: Citation Party Name Subject
Citations If you have a citation to a case (531 U.S.
98), you can: pull the book off of the shelf; use the Get a Document command on Lexis; use the Find this Document by citation
command on Westlaw; or use the Official Citation field on Lois Law.
Party Names If you have a party name (Roe v. Wade) but
lack the citation, you can: use the Table of Cases in the appropriate
Digest volume to obtain a citation; use the Get a Document Command/Party
Name on Lexis; use the Field Segment, Title, with Westlaw; or use the Appellee/Appellant field in Lois Law.
Locating Cases by Subject If you have neither a party name nor a citation, you will
need to locate your case by subject. To assist you with subject searching, several print and electronic case finding tools exist. These include: American Law Reports Digests Shepard’s/KeyCite Legal Periodicals, including Indexes Legal Encyclopedias Words & Phrases Loose Leafs
Case Finding Tools (ALRs) The American Law Report series (A.L.R., A.L.R.2d,
A.L.R.3d, A.L.R.4th, A.L.R.5th, A.L.R. Fed): selects unique cases for publication; thus coverage is
selective rather than comprehensive; often includes an article or an annotation written by an
expert in the field; provides citations to similar cases throughout the U.S.; can be accessed with the A.L.R. Digest, A.L.R. Index, or
A.L.R. Quick Index.; can be updated with the A.L.R. Blue Book of
Supplemental Decisions or Shepard’s A.L.R. Citations; and is available in print and on Westlaw and Lexis.
Digests Digests are published for state, regional, federal and the
national reporter series. There are several publishers that publish digests;
however, West Group Publishers is the primary digest publisher.
West’s digests are unique in that they use a topic and key number system that allow a researcher to move from a regional to a federal digest, using the same topic and key number.
Once a researcher has his/her topic and key number in a West digest, he or she can move around in any West state, regional, federal, national, or specialty digest with that same topic and key number.
What is a Digest? Digests are essentially a detailed index that
provide you with: a brief abstract of a case; the case name; the case citation; and the applicable digest topics and key numbers.
How do you use a Digest? Essentially there are four ways to access a digest:
use the Table of Cases volume which contains an alphabetical arrangement of party names and provides citations;
use the Descriptive Word Index volume which works exactly like any other index encountered;
use the Words and Phrases volume for terms of legal significance; or
use the topical outline at the beginning of a topic.
Citators Citators serve two
purposes: they can be used to
locate similar cases on a subject; and
they allow researchers to ascertain the validity of their research by updating it.
There are two citator services: Shepard’s KeyCite
Shepard’s Shepard’s began as a print product in 1873
and was developed by Frank Shepard. It is now published by Lexis Publishing and is available exclusively on Lexis-Nexis. It now exists in three formats: print CD-ROM electronically
Shepard’s Over the years as
Shepard’s inundated the legal profession, law students became so familiar with the Shepard’s updating process that it became known as shepardizing.
Shepard’s provides the researcher with the following information about a case: parallel citations; subsequent history
citations; treatment of the case by
later cases; and citations to secondary
sources.
KeyCite KeyCite was developed by West Publishing
in 1996 to compete with Shepard’s. KeyCite is available in CD-ROM and
electronic formats but is not available in print.
KeyCite KeyCite provides you with:
the direct appellate history; the negative indirect history; cites to all cases available on Westlaw; cites to all cases that cite a federal statute or
regulation.
Legal Periodicals Legal periodicals can also provide both the
novice and experienced researcher with information about a subject as well as cites to cases, statutes and regulations concerned with the issue.
To obtain citations to periodicals, you can use either print or electronic indexes.
Legal Periodicals Print indexes for legal
periodicals are: Current Law Index which
provides coverage from 1980 to the present; and
the Index to Legal Periodicals which provides coverage from 1908 to the present.
To obtain citations to legal periodicals electronically (in addition to Westlaw and Lexis), you can use: Index to Legal
Periodicals Retrospective Index to
Legal Periodicals LegalTrac Wilsondisc
Legal Encyclopedias There are two national legal encyclopedias
that can provide researchers with background information as well as citations to cases. These are: American Jurisprudence (Am. Jur.) Corpus Juris Secondum (C.J.S.)
Words & Phrases Words and Phrases is a multi volume
series published by West. It functions as a case finding tool.
It contains words of legal significance, arranged in alphabetical order.
Under a particular phrase (i.e. res ipsa for example) are citations to cases that contain an extensive discussion of the phrase.
Loose Leafs Loose Leaf services are usually multi volume series that
devote themselves exclusively to a specific subject area that is heavily regulated, i.e., banking, securities or tax.
While every loose leaf varies, typically a loose leaf series will contain statutes, applicable regulations, citations to cases on the topic, and editorial analysis. Thus the loose leaf provides subject specialization and can also be used as a case finding tool since it contains citations to cases.
Loose Leafs In the past, loose leafs were published only
in the print format. Today, loose leaf services are available in print, CD-ROM, and electronic formats.
Both CCH and BNA are some of the largest and best known loose leaf publishers.
Legislation In addition to cases, statutes are also primary
sources of law. Statutes are enacted by legislatures to govern
behavior.
Legislation Statutes are published in print in the
following formats: initially a law is published as a slip law; next a session’s laws are bound and published in
a chronological arrangement of the law enacted by the particular legislative session.
Finally laws are published in a code which is a subject arrangement of the laws currently in force.
Legislation When a legislature passes laws in a particular
session (i.e. 2004-2006), the laws passed in the session are known as session laws. Session laws permit historical research.
Session laws are the chronological arrangement of the law. If you want to read the 1933 Securities Exchange Act as it was enacted in 1933, you would need to consult the federal session laws for 1933.
Legislation Federal session laws are published in print
format in the following sources: Statutes at Large (Stat.) (Official) United States Code Congressional
Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.)
Legislation To access federal session laws, you must
consult the index of the year of the session as indexes for session laws do not cumulate.
To access federal session laws on Lexis, consult the Federal Legal US library, United States Statutes at Large file or the Legislation and Politics Library, Legislative Histories file.
Legislation In Westlaw, consult the Legislative Histories
(LH) database or the United States Code Congressional Administrative News (USCCAN) database or the USCCAN Public Laws (USCCAN-PL) database.
The Library of Congress web site, Thomas, at http://thomas.loc.gov also provides limited access to legislative history materials.
Thomas Thomas provides access to:
the full text of bills pending before Congress. This information is available from 1989-present;
bill summary and status. This information is available from 1973 onwards;
the full text of recently enacted legislation, i.e. public laws. This information is available from 1973 onwards; and
selected Congressional Reports from 1995 onwards; andthe full text of the Congressional Record from 1989 onwards.
Legislation To locate the laws that are currently in force, you
must consult a code. A code is a subject arrangement of laws presently in effect.
Federal laws currently in force are published in the following print formats: United States Code (U.S.C.) (Official) United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.)
Legislation You can access the U.S.C. via:
a descriptive word (subject) index; citation (i.e. 17 U.S.C. §701); or Popular Names Table.
Legislation On Westlaw, the U.S.C. can be found in the
USCA database. On Lexis, this service is available in the Federal
Legal US library, USCS file. The U.S.C. is also available on Lois Law. The U.S.C. can also be accessed via the Internet
at Cornell’s Legal Information Institute or GPO Access at http://www.access.gpo.gov/ .
Legislation Florida’s session laws can be located in the
print source, Laws of Florida. Print versions of Florida’s code can be
found in either: Florida Statutes (Fla. Stat.) (Official) Florida Statutes Annotated (Fla. Stat. Ann.)
Legislation Again, Florida’s code can be found on
Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis, and Lois Law. On the Internet, these laws, as well as
pending bills, can be found at Florida’s On-Line Sunshine site at http://www.leg.state.fl.us/
Executive A third and final source of U.S. legal authority is
promulgated under the auspices of the Executive Branch. Regulations are made by administrative agencies, operating under the power of the Executive Branch.
Administrative agencies are frequently described as having quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative functions. They publish rulings and issue orders.
Regulations can be described as filling in the blanks left by statutes.
Executive Federal regulations are published in print,
CD-ROM, and electronic sources.
Executive Federal regulations are first published in the
Federal Register (FR) which is published every business day. Like the Statutes at Large, the Federal Register is a chronological arrangement of federal regulations.
The Federal Register contains: proposed agency rules; final agency rules;& notices of agency meetings.
Federal Register Currently the present source of the Federal
Register is available at depository libraries in print format. It is also available at the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) Internet site at http://www.access.gpo.gov/
On Westlaw, the Federal Register is available in the FR database.
On Lexis, it is available in the Federal Legal US library, Federal Register file.
Regulations To locate final regulations that are presently in
force, you will need to consult the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is published annually.
The CFR is a subject arrangement of federal regulations and is analogous to the United States Code (U.S.C.)
The CFR contains both final regulations and Executive Orders of the President.
Regulations In addition to the print source, the CFR is
available at GPO’s Internet site at http://www.access.gpo.gov/
It is available in the CFR database in Westlaw, and it is available in Lexis in the Federal Legal US library, CFR file.
Updating a Federal Regulation Begin updating a federal regulation by consulting
the List of Sections Affected (LSA) which is published monthly. Check the most recently published LSA. Check for your
title and section to see if it has been superceded by a later rule published in the Federal Register;
For the months that the LSA is not available, check the List of Sections Affected in the back of the Federal Register issued on the last day of the month; and
Check the List of Sections Affected in the front of the Federal Register for each day thereafter.
Updating a Federal Regulation How does this work?
Suppose you want to update 26 C.F.R.§1.25 as of the date, Jan. 3, 2007.
Locate the LSA in the library. The most current issue of the LSA is June 2006. Pull this issue and check your citation.
Go to the last issue of the month (i.e. December 2006) of the Federal Register. Look in the back of each issue for the List of Sections Affected. It will list all CFR sections affected during these months.
Updating a Federal Regulation You then need to check the List of CFR
Sections Affected in the front of the Federal Register for Jan. 1 – Jan. 3, 2007.
Once this is done, you’ve updated your federal regulation.
Florida’s Regulations Florida’s regulations are published in the print
source, Florida Adminstrative Code Annotated. This source is available on Westlaw and Lexis as well as on the Internet at http://fac.dos.state.fl.us/ Decisions from Florida’s state agencies as well as state court decisions involving administrative law are published in the Florida Administrative Law Reports.
Links to the various Florida administrative agencies are available from the Florida Online Sunshine site.
Secondary Sources While secondary sources do not
constitute the law, they can help you locate primary sources on point. Secondary sources include: American Law Reports Legal Encyclopedias Legal Periodicals Loose Leafs Restatements of the Law Hornbooks.
Conclusion When you receive your research
assignment, remember to plan your research strategy.
If you have questions or would like suggestions, please call the Reference Desk at (954) 262-6201or send an email to [email protected].