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Legal Research

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Name the two OH administrative code resources.
Ohio Monthly Record
Ohio Administrative Code
What is primary authority?
The statement of the law itself.
Name the two resources with which you can update you cases and make sure they are still good law.
Shepherds - Lexis
KeyCite - Westlaw
Where can primary authority be found?
Consitutions, statutes, cases, rules and regulations
Name the source where you can find federal code.
United States Code (USC)
What would you use a law review article for?
1. Background info
2. Thorough analysis
3. Policy considerations or arguments for law reform
4. Citations to other primary or secondary authority
What would you use shepherds to find?
Parallel citiations
Case history
Cases that have mentioned your case
Other materials that have mentioned your case.
When is primary authority manditory?
When it is used in its own jurisdiction
Name three ways you could find your information in a print Restatement.
Use subject index or table of contents
Use appendix volume to find case summaries
Use pocket part in latest appendix for most recent cases
What are independent agencies?
Established by statute with officals appointed by the President with approval of Congress. ie. EPA, SEC
What are legal periodicals that are published by law students?
Law reviews
Name the three ways that you can find cases using a West Digest
Known case method
Topic method
Descriptive work indexf
What are the abstracts of points of law at the beginning of each court opinion called?
Headnotes
Name two resources where you can find rules and regulations of administrative law.
Federal Register FR
Code of Federal Register CFR
Which legal encyclopedia focuses on case law and state law?
C.J.S.
What are some of the differences between Shepherds and KeyCite?
See back of yellow page.
What places can you find the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books?
Lexis, Westlaw, OSCAR, book form
What is administrative law?
Law created by administrative agencies.
Which legal encyclopedia cites more selectively with emphasis on controlling cases that interpret the law and focuses more on federal law?
Am. Jur. 2d
How do you update ALR?
You guessed it - The pocket part!!!!!
What is the name and abbreviation of the US Distric Court's reporter?
Federal Suppliment F.Supp.2d
Name 3 places where you can find state statutes.
State Constitution
Slip laws
Session laws
Name some legal periodicals.
Law reviews
Bar association journals
Commercially published legal periodicals
Newsletters
Legal newspapers
What 4 steps should you take when you do digest research
Select appropriate digest
Select relavent topics and key #
Read cases and summaries under #s
Check pocket part and suppliment for most recent cases.
What is the name of a secondary source that gives indepth discussion of one subject of law?
Legal treatise
What are executive agencies?
Part of cabinet level departments ie. IRS, Department of Treasury
When do you stop researching? (5 answers)
1. When you have found the answer
2. When you have found all the relevant authorities
3. When you have looked everywhere important
4. The cost of research exceeds the benefit
5. You begin to retrieve the same authorities.
What is the name of the source that reprints selected leading cases with a detailed analysis of a specifid point of law?
ALR
Name the ways in which a reporter can publish cases. (the ways the are arranged)
Single court
Single level of court system
Single state
Number of states
Different courts but all on same subject
Do statutes have authority outside of their jurisdiction?
No, not at all. They can't even be considered persuasive.
What is included in Am Jur 2d?
1. General and subject indices
2. References to West's key #'s
3. Topical outlines
4. Tables of statutes, rules and regulations
How are West's Digests organized?
By broad subjects called Topics
Name some forms of treatises.
Nutshells
Hornbooks
Restatements
Looseleaf services
Page's and Balwin's also have an annotated OH code? True or False.
True
When is primary authority persuasive?
Outside of its own jurisdiction.
What does the red stop sign on Lexis or the red flag on Westlaw mean?
Case reversed, overruled, no longer good on at least one point of law.
Overall, given some sort of negative treatment.
What is star pagination?
References you to a US Reports page # in the unofficial US Supreme Court cases.
What are session laws?
Statutes arranged chronologically and published in a separate volume for each session of congress.
What does Am. Jur. 2d stand for?
American Jurisprudence
What does ALR 5th contain?
General and state legal issues.
What would you use to find legal periodicals?
Index to Legal periodicals and Books
Current Law Index
Legal Trac (internet version of CLI)
What is the name of the resource that contains the information of adminitrative agencies grouped by subject?
Code of Federal Regulations
What are the 5 eveluations of secondary sources?
Author
Format
Organization
Coverage
Currency
What is in an ALR annotation?
Table of contents
Subject index
Table of cited statutes and cases
Cross references to other publications ie. encyclopedias
What federal reporter is considered official and what other two are not?
Official - US Reports
Unofficial - Federal Reporter
Federal Supplement
Where can you find information about federal agencies?
United States Government Manual
What is secondary authority?
Anything that comments on, analyzes, discusses, interprets or criticizes primary law.
Name some places where you could find cases.
Digests
ALR
Secondary sources
Shepherds and Keycite
How do you update a legal periodical?
Look for a more recent law review article
What do the numbers mean in the writing of Public Law 100-615?
The 615th public law passed during the 100th Congress
What should you avoid citing to?
A legal encyclopedia.
What are the books called that are finding tools that organize headnotes from cases by subject?
Digests
What are the two components of a decision of a case published in a reporter?
Syllabus
Headnotes
Name the four reasons you would use the Federal Register.
1. Text of a regulation is too new to be in the CFR
2. Need next of a proposed regulation
3. You want to update text found in CFR
4. Want text as issued w/o subsequent changes.
What should you update with, always, always always?
Pocket part
What does ALR stand for?
American Law Reports
What is Wright and Miller's Civil Procedure an example of?
Treatise
Where are floor debates published?
In the Congressional Record
What does ALR Federal Contain?
Federal law issues
Name the official reporter for federal cases.
United States Reports
Name the three places you can find federal session laws.
Statutes at Large
United States Code, Congressional & Administrative News (USCCAN)
United States Code Monthly Advance (USCS)
When is secondary authority persuasive?
Always, in every case
What is a cited source?
The case you are shepherdizing
Name 3 OH official reporters
Ohio State Reports
Ohio Appellate Reports
Ohio Miscellaneous Reports
Name two reference works where you could find OH statutes.
Baldwins Ohio Revised Code
Pages Ohio Revised Code
Name some secondary authority
Legal encyclopedias, restatements, trestises, hornbooks, law reviews, looseleaf services.
Why would you use ALR?
To get an overview of an area or law, to find relavent citations, and for finding persuasive authority from other jurisdictions
What are court reports?
Compilations of court opinions arranged chronologically.
What is legislative history?
A paper trail of documents that legislators create during the legislative process.
Name 2 legal dictionaries
Black's Law Dictionary
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
What is the only comprehensive finding tool for reported decisions?
West's Digests
Are most state reporters official or unofficial?
What is OH's?
Unofficial

OH's is official
What is the name of the resource that contains state administrative materials?
BNA Directory of State Administrative Codes and Regulations
Why would you use a secondary source?
1. To provide context
2. Find references to primary authority
3. Assist in interpreting and analyzing primary authority
What is the citing source?
A later source which mentions your case.
What is a slip sheet?
A seperate pamphlet with a court's decision.
What are bills and why are they useful?
Changes in language and the addition or deletion of provisions.
They may shed some light on what the legisture was trying to accomplish
What is the name of a primary source that is a government charter that sets out the fundamental rights and obligations of citizens?
U.S. Constitution
What is a citator?
A listing of later cases and documents that mention or discuss a specific case.
What are unpublished court decisions?
The decision of the court that is technically only released to the parties involved, but some are still available through Westlaw and Nexis
Which of the three federal session laws resources is official?
Statutes at Large
How do you use a legal encyclopedia?
1. Use subject index or table of contents
2. Find relevant sections in main subject volume
3. Update with pocket part
What are laws enacted by legislatures to prohibit or regulate certain activities called?
Statutes
Name the level of court where all the decisions are published.
US and state Supreme Courts
Which of the federal code resources is official?
United States Code (USC)
What is the purpose of a citation?
It identifies a legal authority or reference work.
What does the yellow triangle or Lexis or the yellow flag on Westlaw mean?
Some negative treatment but has not been overruled or reversed.
Name a federal reporter whose new information appears rather quickly and another reporter that appears very slowly.
Fast - West's Supreme Court Reporter
Slow - United States Reports
Why are floor debates not a good source of legislative history?
Because members of Congress can ammend or suppliment their statments after the fact.
When is secondary authority manditory?
Never
What are key numbers?
Numbered sections that designate specific points of law.
What makes a court report official?
It is designated by the government as a source of authoritative text
Are Baldwins and Page's OH Revised Codes official or unofficial?
unofficial
What are primary sources that are laws enacted by legislatures?
Statues
What is a code?
A subject arrangement of statutes.
How do we get these opinions? Where do they come from?
The courts release their decisions to commercial or state publishers for inclusion in reporters
Name two annotated codes that have subject indexes and are updated annually.
USCA
USCS
What is a multi volume set of legally defined terms?
Words and Phrases
Name some things that are contained in a committee report.
Committee's reasons for recommending the bill.
A section by section analysis of the bill.
Dissenting views of committee members.
Provisions that differed b/t the House and the Senate.
What does each headnote have? 2 things
topic
key #
What do you call a single statute published in a pamphlet?
Slip law
What primary source consists of directives issued by government agencies pursuant to statutory or consitutional authority?
Regulations and Rules
Where can you find the text of a statute when it was innitially enacted?
Session laws
What are paralell citations?
Citings of both official and unofficial reports at the state level
What makes an unofficial code unofficial?
There is no certification as to the true source of the text.
What is an advance sheet?
Full text of a number of court opinions arranged chronologically
Name the steps that a law goes through before it gets into the annotated code.
Slip law
Session law
Code
Annotated Code
By 1887 what had West's National Reporter system done?
Published all federal and state opinions released for publication
What is the name of the resource that is compiled once daily that includes all the proposed and new administrative regulations?
Federal Register
What is the name and abbreviation of the US Court of Appeals reporter?
Federal Reporter F.3d
What does the annotated code consist of?
References to court opinions which apply the statute.
The most frequently used form of a state's currect statutes.
Also: editorial notes, historical comments, other statutes, Attorney General's opinions, law review articles
Name an OH unofficial reporter.
North Eastern Reporter
What code is divided into 50 titles, each subdivided into chapters and sections, is unannotated, reissued every six years and is always cited but rarely used?
United States Code
Name two federal annotated code resources
United States Code Annotated (USCA)
United States Code Service
(USCS)
What are disadvantages of using the session laws for research?
You can't determine if the statute is still good law
You can't do subject research b/c you don't have access to amendments.
What would you find in USCANN?
The text of public laws and selected committee reports.
What is an unannotated code?
Only the texts of a statute without notes
What are hearings?
Testimony of experts and interested parties.
What are the four major sources of federal legislative history?
Bills introduced to Congress
Hearings before committees
Floor debates in House and Senate
Committee reports

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