Transcript Introduction to Legal Research

Introduction to Legal Research &
FSU Law Library Services
Presented by Robin R. Gault,
Associate Director of the Law Library
Created by Faye Jones,
Director of the Law Library & Professor
Reference Desk: 644-4095
Evening Service: The Hotline (Red Phone) at Reference
Legal Research: A Fundamental Skill
• The MacCrate Report, ABA Section of Legal Education &
Admissions to the Bar, Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the
Profession: Narrowing the Gap v, 145 (Robert MacCrate ed. (1992).
• In order to conduct legal research effectively,
a lawyer should have a working knowledge
of the nature of legal rules and legal
institutions, the fundamental tools of legal
research, and the process of devising and
implementing a coherent and effective
research design . . . .
• Horne v. Peckham, 158 Cal. Rptr. 714, 721
(Cal. Ct. App. 1979), quoting Smith v. Lewis,
530 P.2d 589, 595 (Cal. 1975)
• Hickox v. Holleman, 502 So. 2d 626 (Miss.
1987)
Legal Research: The Basics
• Primary Authority
• IS the law
• Cases, Statutes, Constitutions, Regulations, Rules
• Secondary Authority
• Analysis and commentary
• Usually the best place to begin research
• Treatises, Practice materials, Periodicals, American Law
Reports & much more
• Finding Tools
• Digests, Citators, and other techniques
• Updating Tools
• Lexis/Nexis Shepard’s Citators and Westlaw Keycite
A Legal Researcher’s Goals
• To find correct resources to rely upon
• The law that governs the facts in your case and
which was in effect at the time the facts occurred
• To be comprehensive
• Mandatory primary authority, persuasive primary
authority, useful secondary authority
• To be credible
• To find the strongest authority to rely upon
• To be cost-effective
• Practice, practice, practice
• Caveat: Ask for help before frustration sets in…
Work From A Research Plan
• Identify research terms
• Study the facts, read all available documents, and
develop vocabulary before beginning to research
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Assess the formats available: print or online?
Keep a journal as you work
Find, read, and update secondary sources
Develop issues for primary research
• Hint: It helps to write out the issues
• Find, read, and update primary authority
• Include nonlegal materials as appropriate
Primary Sources: Cases
• Courts: explain the dispute, the outcome,
and their reasoning
• Dispute resolution
• Precedent for future
• Courts are reactive
• Typical court structure:
• Trial
• Appellate (Intermediate)
• Highest
Parts of a Case
• Caption: names of parties in the case
• Docket Number: court-assigned tracking number
• Citation: publication location
• Subsequent publications
• 34 F. 211; 34 F.2d 211; 34 F.3d 211
• Parallel Citations
• 55 U.S. 193, 14 How. 193, 14 L. Ed. 383, 1852 U.S. LEXIS 435
(1853)
• Attorneys: names of counsel appearing for each
of the parties in the case
• Judges: which judges wrote the majority opinion
and any dissenting or concurring opinions
• Opinion: the actual decision of the judge
Federal Courts
Federal Case Reporters
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Reports
• Supreme Court
Reporter
• Lawyer’s Edition
• U.S. Court of
Appeals
• Federal Reporter
• U.S. District Courts
• Federal Supplement
Regional Reporter System
Examples of Regional and Specialty
Reporters
Florida Courts
• Florida Supreme Court
• http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/
• 5 District Courts of Appeal
• http://www.flcourts.org/courts/dca/dca.shtml
• 20 Circuit Courts
• Both trial and appellate courts
• http://www.flcourts.org/courts/circuit/circuit.shtml
• 67 County Courts
• http://www.flcourts.org/courts/county/county.shtml
Florida Case Reporters
• Southern Reporter
• Regional reporter that includes Florida
• Florida Cases
• A subset of Southern Reporter that contains only Florida cases
• Florida Law Weekly
• New Florida appellate court decisions
• Florida Law Weekly Federal
• New decisions of federal courts sitting in Florida, 11th Circuit
and U.S. Supreme Court
• Florida Law Weekly Supplement
• New selected county and circuit court decisions
• http://www.floridalawweekly.com
Finding Tools
• Digests
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Comprehensive topical indexes
Decennial Digest
General Digest
West’s Florida Digest & Florida Digest 2d
• Citators
• Using primary or secondary sources
• “One good case”
• “Mining the footnotes”
Is there a typical path for doing case
research?
• Three questions:
• Where to begin?
• How to proceed?
• When to stop?
• What is accessible/most useful?
• Online resources vs. print resources
Primary Sources: Federal Statutes &
Constitution
• Government Printing Office (Official)
• Public Laws (slip laws)
• Statutes at Large (session laws)
• United States Code (Reorganized into 50
topics)
• Commercial Publishers (Unofficial)
• United States Code Annotated
• United States Code Service
Primary Sources: Florida Statutes &
Constitution
• Official
• Laws of Florida (session laws)
• Florida Statutes
• Unofficial
• Florida Statutes Annotated (West)
• Florida Annotated Statutes (Lexis)
Primary Sources: Regulations
“Delegated Legislation”
• Federal
• Code of Federal Regulation
• Federal Register
• Administrative agency publications
• Florida
• Florida Administrative Code Annotated
• Florida Administrative Weekly
• Florida Administrative Law Reports
Rules of Procedure and Ethics
• Rules of courts
• Federal, state, and local
• Rules of Professional Conduct
• Rules Regulating the Florida Bar
• American Bar Association Model Rules
• Codes of Judicial Conduct
• Ethics opinions
• The Florida Bar
Updating Tools
• Currency is the lifeblood of the law!
• Shepard’s
• Print
• Lexis
• Keycite (Westlaw)
• Hint: Learn both systems!
Secondary Sources
• Treatises
• Practice materials
• Periodicals & Indexes
• Index to Legal Periodicals
• Current Law Index (LegalTrac)
• SmartCILP
• American Law Reports
• Encyclopedias
Research Instruction at FSU
• Teaching legal research
• In class
• In workshops
• In the Library
• Hands On!
• Ask for help from the reference librarians
• Margaret Clark is the librarian liaison for 1Ls
FSU University Libraries
• Main Library (Strozier)
• Databases
• Tutorials
• What’s New
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Information Studies
Medical
Music
Science (Dirac)
Regional/National Library Catalogs
FSU Law Library
• Resources
• ALEPH, the online catalog
http://fs.aleph.fcla.edu/F?RN=549061111
• Print
• Electronic
• Internet
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Services
Staff
Hours
Policies
Research Instruction
Law Library Services for Students
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Individual research assistance
Research instruction
CALI
Past exams
Course reserve materials
Interlibrary loan
Wireless access
Printing/photocopying
Creation of unique research databases
Research & The End Game
• American Bar Association Career Guides
• http://www.abanet.org/publiced/legalcareers.html
• FindLaw, http://careers.findlaw.com/
• The Florida Bar
http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/PI/CertSect.nsf/Sections?Op
enForm
http://www.flabuslaw.org/
• Professional Organizations
• AIPLA, http://www.aipla.org/
• Armed Forces
• http://www.navy.com/officer/legal;
http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=318;
http://www.marines.com/officer_programs/chooseyourplace.asp?format
=flash;
http://www.airforce.com/careers/job.php?catg_id=1&sub_catg_id=3&af_
job_id=179; http://www.gocoastguard.com/dc/dcprograms/dcl.htm
• FSU J.D./M.S. joint degree in law librarianship
http://www.ci.fsu.edu/Prospects/Grads/ssd98_JurisDrMS_degree_d
esc.cfm
•JUST ASK!