LEGAL RESEARCH LGL 125 (3 Credits)

INTRODUCTION

Provides an understanding of various components of a law library, and emphasizes skills through the use of digests, encyclopedias, reporter systems, codes, Shepards, ALR and other research tools.

OBJECTIVES

1. The student will be introduced to the fundamentals of legal research and the basic materials employed in such research.

2. The student will view the function of legal research and obtain an understanding of the roles of legal research in law and law-related fields.

APPLICABLE TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS

Required: Legal Research Illustrated, Jacobstein and Mersky; the Foundation Press (latest edition)

MAJOR TOPICS TO BE COVERED

Legal encyclopedias, court reporters and the national reporter system, digests, ALR, legislative materials, Shepards Citations and the methods of legal research.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Each student must attend at least 13 of the 16 class sessions.

2. Each student must complete the worksheets, term projects and examinations.

WEEKLY COURSE OUTLINE

Class #1: General introduction; read Chapters 1 (Introduction to Legal Research) and 16 (Legal Encylopedias) and page 100 for next class.

Class #2: Lecture on encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Class #3: George Mason University Law School Law Library Worksheet #1 -- Read Chapters 3 (Court Reports), 4 (Federal Court Cases) and 5 (State Court Cases and the National Reporter System) for next class.

Class #4: Lecture on court reports -- Read Chapter 6 (Digests for Court Reports) for next class.

Class #5: Lecture on digests.

Class #6: GMU Law Library - Worksheet #2 -- Read Chapters 8 (Constitutions), 9 (Federal Legislation) and 11 (State and Municipal Legislation) for next class. -- You can read Chapter 10 (Federal Legislative Histories) if that interests you. We will cover this material very briefly in class.

Class #7: Lecture on legislation.

Class #8: GMU Law Library -- Worksheet #3

Class #9: Review for Mid-term examination.

Class #10: Mid-term examination -- Read Chapters 7 (Annotated Law Reports) and 15 (Shepards Citations) for next class.

Class #11: Lecture on American Law Reports and Shepards Citations

Class #12: GMU Law Library -- Worksheet #4 -- Read Chapter 21 (Electronic Legal Research) for next class. -- Read this chapter generally -- it's complicated and technical -- don't panic -- we will simplify it.

Class #13: Preview of computer seminar (to be held in the Commonwealth Classroom)

Class #14: Westlaw seminar (Commonwealth classroom) -- Read the following chapters generally (if you are interested!) -- Chapters 13 (Administrative Law), 14 (Looseleaf Services), 17 (Legal Periodicals and Indexes) and 18 (Treatises, Restatements, Uniform Laws and Model Codes).

Class #15: Lecture on Administrative Law, Looseleaf Services, Legal Periodicals, Treatises, Restatements, Uniform Laws and Model Codes -- Review for final examination

Class #16: FINAL EXAMINATION

GRADING

Mid-term examination: 45%

Final examination: 45%

Term project: 10%

A: 90-100

B: 80-89

C: 70-79

D: 60-69

F: Below 60

LEGAL RESEARCH COURSE OUTLINE

LEGAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS

American Jurisprudence 2d (Lawyers COOP)

Corpus Juris Secundum (West)

Michie's Jurisprudence for Virginia and West Virginia

A good starting point in research when little or nothing is known about the topic to be checked.

They have detailed indexes. Use a key word or trigger word in the index to find a topic.

They have 'analyses' (which are in fact just tables of contents) immediately following each major topic, which can be checked rather than using the index.

They give case references and are updated yearly with pocket supplements.

LEGAL DICTIONARIES

Blacks, Ballentine's, Words and Phrases

Words and Phrases: not really a dictionary. But it gives court case interpretations and definitions of words and phrases. This can be used when the object of your search is the definition of a word or phrase (ie. how the courts have defined 'reasonable doubt').

COURT REPORTS

A court report (or reporter) is a set of books which gives the entire court decision or opinion in the jurisdiction covered by that reporter.

It may or not have headnotes, which are topic summaries from the case immediately preceding the official court opinion.

West not only gives headnotes in its National Reporter System, but also the particular key number associated with that topic in West's Key Number System.

West's National Reporter System

West claims to have printed all reported decisions in the U.S.

The National Reporter System includes regional reporters for the state courts of appeals within that region of the country as well as a U.S. Supreme Court Reporter and reporters for all federal intermediate appeal courts and federal trial courts.

When West is the only publisher of a court opinion, it is considered the 'official' reporter. Some states don't publish their own court's opinions because they know that West will do it.

Supreme Court Reporters

West: Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.)

Lawyers COOP: U.S. Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers Edition (L.Ed.)

GPO (official): U.S. Reports (U.S.)

Federal Court Reporters

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

Federal Supplement (F.Supp.) and Federal Supplement 2d (F.Supp.2d): U.S. District Courts

Federal Rules Decisions (F.R.D.): U.S. District Courts in cases which interpret the federal rules of procedure

There are other specialized federal reporters by West: Court of Claims, U.S. Court of Customs Appeals, Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Military Court of Appeals.

NOTE: West is the only publisher of federal cases below the Supreme Court level.

West's Regional Reporters

West publishes all state court opinions (both the supreme court and intermediate court of appeals) by groups of states in its regional reporters:

a) Atlantic Reporter (A.2d)

b) Pacific Reporter (P.2d)

c) Northeastern Reporter (N.E.2d)

d) Northwestern Reporter (N.W.2d)

e) Southeastern Reporter (S.E.2d)

f) Southwestern Reporter (S.W.2d)

g) Southern Reporter (So.2d)

West also publishes some state court opinions in individual state court reporters (ie. New York in the New York Supplement (N.Y.S.) and California in the California Reporter (CalRptr.)

Official state reports

Some states (such as Virginia) also publish their own 'official' reports. When this happens, the West reporter for that state simply becomes a parallel (and 'unofficial') reporter.

Reporters published by the states are abbreviated by the state name (ie. Va.).

Citing cases

The name of the case will be given first, then the volume number and abbreviation of the reporter, then the page on which the case begins, and finally the year of the decision.

NOTE: If the entire citation does not indicate which particular court the case comes from, include that information just before the year of the decision.

Bell v. Jones, 431 A.2d 900 (ME 1980)

Bell v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 209, 509 S.E.2d 1 (1987)

Bell v. Johnson, 5 Va. App. 304, 500 S.E. 2d 80 (1987)

Note that the Virginia intermediate court of appeals is abbreviated with 'Va. App.' rather than just 'Va.' This is a way to distinguish between cases from the state supreme court (Va.) and the state's intermediate court of appeals (Va. App.).

Boll v. U.S., 805 F.2d 23 (11th Cir. 1990)

Ball v. U.S., 450 F. Supp. 309 (E.D. Va. 1976)

LEGAL DIGESTS

This is also a legitimate starting point, if you feel the answer will be provided by court cases.

A digest gives case summaries (digests) by topic. Thus, rather than reading a discussion of the law as you would in an encyclopedia, you see a list of case summaries on a particular topic. You can then look up the cases that appear to be on point.

American Digest System (West)

They cover all reported cases in the U.S.

All U.S. cases can be found in one of the following:

a) the Century Digest

b) the Decennials

c) the General Digest

The above digests cover all the topics for different time periods:

The Century Digest: 1658-1896

The First Decennial: 1897-1906

The 2nd Decennial: 1907-1916

The 3rd Decennial: 1916-1926

The 4th Decennial: 1926-1936

The 5th Decennial: 1936-1946

The 6th Decennial: 1946-1956

The 7th Decennial: 1956-1966

The 8th Decennial: 1966-1976

The 9th Decennial (Part I): 1976-1981

The 9th Decennial (Part II): 1981-1986

The 10th Decennial (Part I): 1986-1991

The 10th Decennial (Part II):1991-1996

The General Digest (latest series): 1996 to date

Other West Digests

The Decennials (including the Century and the General) cover all reported cases by topic.

Other West digests simply take certain jurisdictions or certain topics from the Decennials and include appropriate cases for that jurisdiction or topic.

a)Regional digests: cover geographical jurisdictions

1) Atlantic Digest

2) Pacific Digest

3) Northwestern Digest

4) Southeastern Digest

5) Southern Digest

These regional digests cover cases reported from the state and federal courts in designated geographical areas.

NOTE: for some reason, there are not 7 regional digests to line up with the 7 regional reporters by West. Some areas of the country are not included in this set of West regional digests.

b)State digests: for individual states (or groups of states).

Example: the Virginia-West Virginia Digest

They simply further narrow the cases cited to particular states (or state). They include both state and federal cases from that state.

c) Digests for the federal courts:

Again, this simply takes certain cases from the Decennials, this time covering only the federal courts.

a) U.S. Supreme Court Digest

b) sets of digests which include the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals and U.S. District Courts -- for different time periods:

1) Federal Digest: federal cases prior to 1939

2) Modern Federal Practice Digest: 1939-1961

3) Federal Practice Digest 2nd: 1961-1975

4) Federal Practice Digest 3rd: 1975-1990

5) Federal Practice Digest 4th: 1990 to date

d) Other West Digests

West's Bankruptcy Digest (for cases from the West Bankruptcy Reporter)

West's Military Justice Digest, U.S. Court of Claims Digest

Key Numbers in the American Digest System

Each particular topic is given a separate key number, which remains the same throughout all the West digests. Once a key number is found, you can find all the cases on that topic in any jurisdiction simply by looking at the appropriate state, regional, federal or other special digest in the West system or by looking in the Decennials under the particular jurisdiction within that key number.

There are 435 topics and a varying number of sub-topics under each one. A key number includes one of these topics followed by the number of the sub-topic: ie. Damages 37.3.

Thus a key number is not just a number; it is a topic and number.

How to find a key number

There are a number of different ways to find a key number in the American Digest system:

1) index method: look up your topic in the Descriptive Word Index (DWI). This will refer you to the appropriate key number.

2) Analysis method: Go to the topic itself in the digest and find your sub-topic in the 'analysis' (table of contents) which follows the topic heading. This can be done if you have a good idea of what areas are covered by a particular topic.

3) Table of cases method: If you have a case on point (from any jurisdiction), look it up in the table of cases of the digest for that jurisdiction. This will give you a key number.

This is a simple method if you know the case name and year of the decision (which allows you to choose the proper decennial).

If you don't know the year, but know the jurisdiction from which it comes, you can go to the Table of Cases in the state, regional or federal digest and find it.

Once you find the case, you can look it up and get the key number from the appropriate headnote at the beginning of the case.

Other digests

Lawyers Coop publishes a digest for Supreme Court cases (U.S. Supreme Court Reports Digest) which also includes articles written about the cases that are reported there.

ANNOTATED LAW REPORTS

This reporter is valuable, not for the reported cases themselves (which are in fact reported in full) but for the 'annotations' which follow the cases.

These annotations are articles which give in-depth analyses of one or more of the major points found in the case.

If your research point is the subject of an ALR annotation, most, if not all, of your research has already been done for you.

Only a selected number of court cases are reported in ALR (although the Lawyers COOP suggests that the ALR system covers the law better than the West key number system).

The various ALR series are set up chronologically and follow no topical organization. The main problem with ALR is that it covers 4 distinct time periods and also has a separate series for federal cases:

ALR: 1919-1948

ALR 2nd: 1948-1965

ALR 3rd: 1965-1980

ALR 4th: 1980-1992

ALR 5th: 1992-date

ALR FED: 1969-date

Each of the ALR series has a topical index and table of cases.

There is a combination index (called the Quick Index) which covers ALR 2nd, ALR 3rd, ALR 4th, ALR 5th and ALR FED. There is a separate Quick Index for ALR.

How ALR is kept current

Once your topic has been located in a particular ALR series, you must check to see if any new cases have been handed down which may modify any aspect of the annotation. This can be done as follows:

ALR: check the Blue Book of Supplemental Annotations

ALR 2nd: check the Later Case Service

ALR 3rd, 4th and FED: check the pocket supplements

Historical table

This table, located at the back of the Quick Index, indicates whether or not a more recent annotation has been published and whether or not that annotation supersedes or merely supplements the original one.

NOTE: As ALR is a Lawyers Coop publication, it is referenced by American Jurisprudence 2d and other Lawyers COOP publications.

NOTE: When a case is fully reported in ALR (and not just mentioned in one of the annotations), it will be cited as follows: Bull v. Henry, 301 Va. 92, 509 S.E.2d 403, 126 A.L.R. 3d 123 (1986)

SHEPARDS CITATIONS

Shepards Citations provides the researcher with a method whereby he or she can locate any case which cites your case in its opinion.

It is a mechanical listing of cases.

How it is set up

You look your case up in the Shepards series which covers your reporter.

Each case is followed by:

a) the parallel citation (in parentheses)

b) the judicial history of the case (what has happened procedurally to that particular case...ie. it was appealed to and overturned by a higher court)

c) the 'treatment' of the case (what other cases have done to the legal principle of that case...ie. followed or modified the principle of the case)

There is a separate set of Shepards Citations for every set of court reporters.

The superscript numbers key each citing case to the particular headnote of the cited case. This allows you to look at only those cases dealing with the particular topic of a case that you are interested in.

State Shepards give citing cases only from courts within that particular state (as well as the federal courts). They also give citations to legal periodicals and national law review articles which mention the cited case.

Shepards for the National Reporter System (West) gives citing cases throughout the National Reporter System.

Shepards cites ALR annotations which mention the cited case.

There are Shepards Citations for statutes and constitutional provisions as well as cases.

LEGISLATION - FEDERAL

As federal laws are passed, they are first issued as 'slip laws' from the GPO.

At the end of each session of Congress, each slip law is published in numerical order in the U.S. Statutes-at-Large.

West's version of this is USCCAN (U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News Service.

These slip laws are then published in the U.S. Code.

U.S. Code: the U.S. government's official publication (updated annually and replaced every 6 years) -- not much editorial help -- print very hard to read.

U.S.C.A.: U.S. Code Annotated by West. Annotated and updated with yearly pocket supplements.

U.S.C.S.: U.S. Code Service by Lawyers Coop. Annotated and updated with yearly pocket supplements.

LEGISLATION - VIRGINIA

The Virginia Code is annotated and is updated every year with pocket supplements.

It is very well indexed and easy to use.