Legal Research Flash Cards

Front 1

List and define the types of authority (3)

Back 1

1. Primary Mandatory- Authority a court must follow from one of the 4 sources of law. (Usually court level dependant and jurisdiction dependant)
2. Primary Persuasive-primary law from a sister court that is very persuasive to a court but that they are not obligated to follow.
3. Secondary persuasive-Legal commentary of the law that may be persuasive to a court.

Front 2

Describe the process of legal research (4)

Back 2

1. Define Scope
2. Generate Search Terms
3. Choose a tool
4. Update, verify, start again

Front 3

How do you define the scope of your research (2)?

Back 3

1. Time- How long you have to do it. (eg. “give me a rough answer in 20 minutes” or “ prepare this for a Supreme court brief next month-be thorough)
2. Result- To whom is the research directed? (For a client? Know both sides, know possible changes or For litigation? Know your side)

Front 4

What are categories that are important to use in generating search terms (5)?

Back 4

1. Parties involved (eg. Landlords and tenants)
2. Places and things
3. Possible claims
4. Relief sought
5. Defenses

Front 5

What should be important in choosing your research tools?

Back 5

Begin with secondary sources (background research) with annotations that will lead you into finding binding primary sources (specific fact research).

Front 6

What is the process of updating, verifying, and starting your research again (3)?

Back 6

1. Keycite or Shepardize (use citators)
2. Determine whether the law you have researched (statutes, cases) is good law.
3. In a situation which your law has been overruled/reversed/distinguished, begin research again.

Front 7

What do citators ultimately tell you (7)?

Back 7

Comparing other citations to a case it tells whether it is...
1. the same case
2. a connected case (possible use for further research)
3. over ruled
4. questioned
5. followed (possible use for further research)
6. reversed
7. distinguished (narrows rule)

Front 8

How many sets of citators are there (5)?

Back 8

1. Set for all federal reporters.
2. Set for the UnitedStatesCode
3. Set for the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations)
4. Set for the regional reporters
5. Set for each state

Front 9

What is STAR METHOD?

Back 9

It is a feature unique to Westlaw. It tells you how much your case is discussed.

Front 10

What is the anatomy of a law book?

Back 10

i.Introduction
ii.Topic outline/Table of Contents
iii.Abbreviations
iv.Index
v.Table of cases
vi.Text
vii.Updates

Front 11

What are the purposes of secondary sources (5)?

Back 11

1. To get an overview of the subject and law
2. To learn key words and phrases.
3. Find primary sources (cases, statutes, etc.)
4. Get forms (for motions)
5. Find legal theories than can persuade a court

Front 12

List the 8 types of secondary sources.

Back 12

1. Legal Dictionaries
2. Legal Thesauruses
3. Legal Encyclopedias- state and general
4. Legal Periodicals
5. Treatises/Hornbooks
6. Restatements
7. American Law Report
8. Uniform Law and Model Acts

Front 13

What are the 2 search methods for almost every secondary source?

Back 13

1. Index Method
2. Topic Outline Method

Front 14

Name a Legal Dictionary and Thesaurus...

Back 14

Black’s Law Dictionary
Burton’s Thesaurus

Front 15

What are the 2 main Legal Encyclopedias?

Back 15

Am. Jur. 2d-
American Jurisprudence 2nd
CJS-
Corpus Juris Secundum

Front 16

How are the topics in Legal Encyclopedias arranged? What do they provide (3)? How are they updated (2)?

Back 16

A. Alphabetically
B. (1) a broad, comprehensive overview of the law. (2) annotations of leading cases. (3) references to other secondary sources.
C. (1) books are updated annually with pocket parts. (2) Am Jur offers something called the “New Topic Service” for new topics.

Front 17

What are 2 methods of searching for Key Terms in a Legal Encyclopedia?

Back 17

1. Index method- search for your terms by using the general index located at the end of each set.
2.Topic-outline (table of contents) method- if you are already familiar with the topic.

Front 18

What other way can you research Am Jur?
(Think "easy")

Back 18

Westlaw- search using a “terms and connectors” query.

Front 19

1. State Encyclopedias are (MORE/LESS) comprehensive than the general encyclopedia for a given state.
2. Does KY have a state encyclopedia?

Back 19

1. MORE
2. No

Front 20

The Kentucky Jurisprudence (3)...

Back 20

1. Is not comprehensive
2. Does not have a master Index.
3. Does have different volumes devoted to specific topics.

Front 21

Name 7 important characteristics of Legal Periodicals...

Back 21

1. Narrow, current topics.
2. Written by legal scholars (law professors, and shorter articles written by law students called comments or notes)
3. Describe, analyze and comment on the law.
4. Propose legal reforms to the law
5.Have cutting edge legal topics
6. Legal periodicals are non-cumulative and just contain articles over time; they have no pocket parts. You must, use multiple volumes to look for articles over a period of time on a subject.
7. Cite to primary authority.

Front 22

How do you search for Legal Periodicals?

Back 22

1.Using the Current Law Index (CLI) - from 1980-
2. Using the Index to Legal Periodicals (ILP) - from 1908-
3.Using Electronic search indexes (they only search the index and abstracts of articles, but not the actual text)

Front 23

How can you search through the CLI (5)?

Back 23

1.subject
2.author
3.title
4.table of cases
5.table of statutes

Front 24

How can you search through the ILP (3)?

Back 24

1.subject
2.table of cases
3.table of statutes

Front 25

How can you search for Legal Periodicals online (4)?

Back 25

1. LegalTrac (electronic version of CLI)- by Subject or Keyword
2. ILP Online (electronic version of ILP)
3. Heinoline- Goes back further, to the 1800’s, and displays full-text in pdf.
4. Westlaw and Lexis- Full-text searchable (search the entire article for a keyword). But, not a precise search strategy.

Front 26

What are Treatises (5)? How are they updated?

Back 26

Books that (1) provide a comprehensive analysis of the law, (2) Give you words, issues, arguments and policies in that area of law, (3) Analyze leading cases and statutes, (4) Contain practice tools, checklists, and tips (good study aids but NEVER CITE THEM), (5) they can be a single or multi-volume work. They are updated by loose-leaf filings.

Front 27

Steps to searching for a treatise (3)...

Back 27

1. Search on Minerva
2. by title, subject, keyword, call number (using broad terms)
3. Retrieve classification number and use it to pull the book from section.

Front 28

What are Restatements? What do they do? Who are they written by?

Back 28

1. Orderly statements of existing case law produced by the American Legal Institute (ALI).
2. They unify the common law nationally. When no primary authority exists, they can persuade a court what the law should be (adopted by courts).
3.. They are written by legal scholars and experts.

Front 29

How do you search for restatements(4)? How are they updated?

Back 29

1.Use the subject index or the table of contents in the volumes to find individual rules.
2.Go to the appendix volumes (arranged chronologically by section number) and find the section number.
3.This will take you to cases interpreting that section
4.Appendix volumes are not cumulative so you have to look up the section in each volume.
5.The latest appendix volume will have a pocket part.

Front 30

What are The American Law Reports (ALR) and what do they provide (5)?

Back 30

1. The ALR is a selective reporter that contains articles called “annotations”.
2. Annotations collect summaries of cases, from a variety of jurisdictions, to provide an overview of the law on a topic.
3. They mainly report the results of cases without analysis or commentary.
4. Each ALR article (topic) is about 50-150 pgs long.
5. These articles contain Appellate court cases, secondary sources, and basically give you lots of information on that topic. All the work is done.

Front 31

How are ALR's arranged (2)?

Back 31

By volumes in a series...
1.Federal series- ALR Federal, 1969-2005 ALR Federal 2d, 2005-
2.General series- From old to new-
ALR 1-6 (6 started in 2005). Old series (1,2) are outdated.

Front 32

How can you search ALRs (2)?

Back 32

1.ALR Index
2.Quick Index

Front 33

How is the ALR updated?

Back 33

The Index and volumes are updated using pocket parts.

Front 34

What are Uniform Laws and Model Acts(2)? Who are they created by? What are they similar to? How?

Back 34

1.Uniform Laws and Model are proposed statutes that can be adopted by the legislature.
2.They are the best possible laws and courts can adopt them.
3.Created by scholars
4.Similar to restatements
5.Like restatements they set out rules, commentary, notes, and summaries of cases interpreting the rules.

Front 35

Give an example of a Uniform Law or Model Act...

Back 35

Model Criminal Code, UCC (Uniform Commercial Code), Model Penal Code, etc.

Front 36

Where do you locate Uniform Laws and Model Acts?

Back 36

The Uniform Laws Annotated (ULA).

Front 37

How does the ULA work? How do you find exact laws and acts?

Back 37

1.The ULA collects and indexes laws and acts in a multi-volume set of books updated by pocket parts.
2.Within the ULA, you can find the exact laws and acts using the “Directory of Uniform Acts and Codes"
This allows you to search by...
i.Subject.
ii.Name of the law.
iii.Adopting jurisdiction.

Front 38

What is Mandatory authority?

Back 38

Common law and constitutional principle binding a lower court to higher courts in its jurisdiction.

Front 39

What is Precedent?

Back 39

Common law principle that binds a court because it made the decision or because the decision came from a higher court.

Front 40

What is Stare Decisis and why is it important?

Back 40

Common law principle binding a court to its own decisions. People rely on consistent law.

Front 41

Name the United States District Court Reporters (7)

Back 41

1. Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)
2. North Eastern Reporter (N.E., N.E.2d)
3. South Eastern Reporter (S.E., S.E.2d)
4.Southern Reporter (So., So. 2d)
5. South Western Reporter (S.W., S.W.2d, S.W.3d) - Kentucky's official reporter
6. North Western Reporter (N.W., N.W.2d)
7. Pacific Reporter (P., P.2d, P.3d)
As well as NY and CA.

Front 42

Administrative Procedure Act requires agencies to(3):

Back 42

1. Notify the public when they plan to promulgate new regulations or change existing ones.
2. Publish proposed regulations and solicit comments on them before the regulations become final
3. Publish final regulations before they go into effect to notify the public of the new requirements.

Front 43

Constitution

Back 43

Establishes a system of government and defines the boundaries of authority granted to the government

Front 44

Statutes

Back 44

Law created by legislative branch

Front 45

How can you determine whether or not to cite a Legal Periodical (4)?

Back 45

1. the author's expertise
2. the reputation of the journal
3. the article's age
4. the depth of the article's research and analysis

Front 46

What are the 7 major categories in the West Key Number system in Digests?

Back 46

1.Persons
2.Property
3.Contracts
4.Torts
5.Crimes
6.Remedies
7.Government

Front 47

What is purpose of Boolean Searching?

Back 47

Retrieves information based on the relationship among words in a document

Front 48

Boolean Search Tools
& (a space) /p /s +s +p /n " " % ! * # (nesting)

Back 48

&=Both search terms: narcotic & warrant
a space= Either search term or both terms: car automobile
/p same paragraph
/s same sentence
+s The first term preceding the second within the same sentence: palsgraf +s island
+p The first term preceding the second within the same paragraph:
/n Search terms within n terms of each other (where n is a number from 1-255): personal /3 jurisdiction
+n The first search term preceding the second by n terms (where n is a number from 1-255): 20 +5 1080
" " Search terms appearing in the same order as in the quotation marks: "attractive nuisance"
% None of the terms following the percent symbol
Using the Root Expander !
To retrieve words with variant endings, use the root expander (!). For example, obey! retrieves obey, obeys, obeyed and obeying.
* Universal Character
# Turning Off Plurals
(Nesting) Use parentheses to combine two separate search statements.

Front 49

What are the steps to researching the U.S.C.A. (West) (4)?

Back 49

1. Look up the topics you want to research in the General Index
2. Locate the relevant code sections in the main volumes
3. Evaluate the material in the accompanying annotations
4. Update your research using the pocket part and Update your research using the supplementary pamphlets at the end of the code

Front 50

U.S.C.A (West) vs. U.S.C.S (Lexis Nexis) (2)

Back 50

1.U.S.C.S has fewer references to court decisions
2.U.S.C.S more comprehensive references to administrative materials.

Front 51

What are the 2 sets for the Kentucky Revised Statutes?

Back 51

1. Michi - published by Lexis/nexis
2. Banks - Baldwin - published by West

Front 52

If a federal court resolves a state issue, they can set precedent. T/F

Back 52

False

Front 53

How many district courts are there, and how many of these are in KY? What are they?

Back 53

There are over 90 district courts. Two are in Kentucky.
1.Western District (Louisville)
2.Eastern District (Lexington)

Front 54

Describe the Court structure in KY.

Back 54

1. Kentucky Supreme Court
2. Court of Appeals
3. Lower Courts
i.District-
Civil Jurisdiction- less than $4,000
Criminal Jurisdiction- Misdemeanors

ii.Circuit
Civil Jurisdiction- greater than $4,000
Criminal Jurisdiction- Felonies

Front 55

Are all KY decisions published? Explain.

Back 55

No. Trial court decisions are not published and only some appellate decisions are published but all Supreme Court decisions are published.

Front 56

Federal Decisions-
What percent of:
District court decisions are published?
Appeal court decisions?
Supreme court decisions?

Back 56

1. Less than 1%
2. About 20%
3. 100% (90 cases)

Front 57

What is a digest (3)?

Back 57

1.A digest is a multi-volume collection of headnotes.
2.The research tool that organizes cases by topic.
3.Digests are basically the indexes for reporters.

Front 58

How are Digest headnotes organized?

Back 58

The headnotes are organized by Topic and Key number.

Front 59

How is a digest updated?

Back 59

Digests are updated annually by pocket parts, quarterly by advance pamphlets (when pocket parts get too big they become supplements).

Front 60

What are the main types of Digests West publishes for:
1. Federal
2. State
3. Regional
3. Combined

Back 60

1.U.S. Supreme Court Digest &
Federal Practice Digests
2.47 state Digests except DUN. Delaware, Utah, Nevada. More comprehensive than regional. Includes federal cases for that state.
3.South Eastern, North Western, Atlantic, Pacific.
4.Master Index to all U.S. cases and it is big and expensive.

Front 61

What are the 6 common features of all West Digests?

Back 61

1. Descriptive Word Index
2. Words and phrases
3. Table of Cases
4. Defendant/Plaintiff Table
5. Main volumes arranged by alphabetically topic
6. Updates

Front 62

What is the difference between the Words and phrases index and the Descriptive Word Index?

Back 62

Words and phrases index will direct you to cases that courts have defined an exact word or phrase. Descriptive word index will send you to a case in which the word is the subject.

Front 63

How many topics are the West main volumes arranged into?

Back 63

435

Front 64

What are the 2 ways to search the main volumes?

Back 64

1.Topic Outlines
2.Topic/ Key number search

Front 65

Who selects the cases in a Reporter? and how are they updated?

Back 65

1.Courts or publishers select the cases in them.
2.Updated with advance sheets.

Front 66

What were the early Reporters?

Back 66

They were all nominative; meaning they were named after the publishers.

Front 67

What was Kentucky’s reporter before 1951, and after 1951?

Back 67

Before 1951- Kentucky Reports
After 1951- South Western Reporter

Front 68

What is the fastest update of a decision?

Back 68

Official SLIP OPINIONS are published the day the decision is announced.

Front 69

Name the West Reporter that covers the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Back 69

Federal Reporter

Front 70

Name the West Reporter that covers the U.S. District Courts.

Back 70

Federal Supplement

Front 71

What are the specialized reporters?

BE My Friend i am speeeccciiiaalll
duurrrr

A. How are they updated?

Back 71

1.Bankruptcy
2.Education
3.Military
4.Federal Rules Decisions

A.Loose-leaf services

Front 72

Other than the reporters, where can you find Kentucky state cases (4)?

Back 72

1.Slip opinions- court opinions
2.Westlaw, Lexis- within 24 hours
3.www.findlaw.com
4.www.kycourts.net

Front 73

What is the anatomy of a West Reporter set (4)?

Back 73

1.Main Volume
2.Cases
3.Advance Sheets updated weekly
4.Mini Digest

Front 74

What are statutes (2)

Back 74

1.Law created by legislatures.
2.May over-ride common law, except on interpretation of the constitution.

Front 75

What is the publication history of a statute whether state or federal (3)?

Back 75

1.Slip Law- immediately published
2.Session law- published at the end of the session and arranged chronologically.
3.Code- published when law is codified. Arranged by subject.

Front 76

What is the codification process?

Back 76

Process by which statutes are cut up into parts and then arranged into one of the 50 topics.

Front 77

What are the 3 places to find code in print?

Back 77

USC (official)
USCS (Lexis)
USCA (West)

Front 78

Why don't people like the official code reporter (USC) and instead prefer the Westlaw or Nexis code reporters?

Back 78

1.It doesn’t get updated often.
2.It is has no case annotations.

Front 79

What is the Official Supreme Court Reporter? What is its disadvantage?

Back 79

1.United States Reports
2.Very slow publication schedule.

Front 80

What is the West Supreme Court Reporter? Lexis?

Back 80

West- Supreme Court Reporter
Lexis- United States Supreme Court Reports

Front 81

Where are supreme court decisions published first before they are published in reporters?

Back 81

Slip opinions and U.S. Law Weekly (BNA)

Front 82

Where are supreme court SLIP DECISIONS published online?

Back 82

(supremecourtus.gov)

Front 83

What are the advantages of the commercial Supreme Court reporters (4)?

Back 83

1.Quick to press.
2.Annotated with head-notes.
3.Updated weekly with advance sheets.
4.Star- paginated to the U.S. Reports.

Front 84

What is the anatomy of a case in a reporter(8)?

Back 84

1.Docket number
2.Court
3.Case name
4.Syllabus
5.Headnotes
6.Procedural details
7.Case body text
8.Opinions

Front 85

In the federal system, what are the 3 phases of the publication history?

Back 85

1. Slip law- Public Law (find at www.Thomas.loc.gov)
2. Session law- Statutes at Large
3. Code- United States Code (final law. Appealed portions edited out)

Front 86

How many titles does the United States Code (U.S.C.) have?

Back 86

The USC has 50 titles based on a discrete area of federal law.

Front 87

How can you search a code (6)?

Back 87

1.By citation
2.By descriptive word index (DWI)
3.By title-outline
4.By tables (found at end of volume)
5.Popular name (eg. Patriot act)
6.Conversion tables- Session law to code section, Regulation to code section and Old code section to new code section

Front 88

What features do the two annotated codes have that the USC does not (5)?

Back 88

1. References to Legislative history, Regulations, Secondary sources, Cases.
2. Regular updates- USCA is updated with annual pocket parts and also with non-cumulative supplements 6 times a year.
USCS same- but supplements 12 times a year.
3. Full text of constitutions
4. Federal rules of civil procedure, criminal procedure, and evidence.
5. Notes of decisions

Front 89

In the state system, what are the 3 phases of the publication history?

Back 89

1.Slip law- Bills (find at LRS- LegislativeResearchCommission website)
2.Session law- Acts (Kentucky acts is the official Kentucky’s session laws issued by the Legislative Research Commission)
-Baldwin’s and Michie’s advance sheets are the unofficial-
3.Code- Revised Statutes

Front 90

What does the Kentucky Acts include (2)? When is it published?

Back 90

1.Includes all the enacted laws
2.Tables linking KRS to Ky. Act
3.Often published after a law’s effective date

Front 91

How are KY statutes codified in Kentucky Revised Statutes (3)?

Back 91

1.Divided into 44 titles
2.Titles divided into chapters
3.Chapters are divided into sections
Example: KRS 159.010
159 is the chapter 010 is the Section

Front 92

What must KRS versions contain to be LRC certified (5)?
KRS- Kentucky Revised Statutes
LRC- Legislative Research Commission

Back 92

1.US Constitution
2.KY Constitution
3.KRS official version of text laws
4.Full and accurate index
5.Rules of KY supreme Ct, Rules of Civ Pro, Rules of Crim Pro

...and any other info LRC deems important

Front 93

What is the anatomy of a KRS (6)?

Back 93

1.Annotations
2.State Constitutions
3.State rules
4.Main Index volumes
5.Topic Outlines
6.Updates

Front 94

What is an administrative regulation?

Back 94

Law created by an executive agency on the direction of the legislature.

Front 95

Who writes regulations?

Back 95

Experts who can scientifically and measurably define conditions in the law.

Front 96

What is the chronology of a federal regulation (also called a rule)?

Back 96

1.An enabling act is passed and signed into law by the president.
2.The executive agency writes a regulation and publishes it in the Federal Register (FR).
3.The public can comment on the regulation.
4.Changes may be made in response and are published in the FR.
5.Final regulations are published in the FR.
6.Some may then be published in the CFR.

Front 97

What is an enabling act and how does it relate to the challenges a regulation may face?

Back 97

An enabling act is a statute or portion of a statute (from the legislature), directing an agency to write regulation. One of the first challenges to a regulation is that it makes it beyond the scope of the enabling act.

Front 98

What does the Federal Register (FR) contain (2)?

Back 98

1.Proposed, revised, and final regulations
2.All official executive branch documents.

Front 99

How often is the FR (Federal Register) updated?

Back 99

It is published daily- consecutively paginated from Jan1-Dec 31 and then indexed at the end of the year.

Front 100

Where can you locate the FR (Federal Register) online?

Back 100

www.gpoaccess.gov

Front 101

How do you search for information on a regulation online (3)?

Back 101

1.Search using the simple search.
2.Advanced search features:
by volume, date, type of document.
3.Section or citation

Front 102

What is the CFR?

Back 102

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) codifies permanent and general regulations, complementing the FR but does not have all the regulations of the FR. It is like a “best of regulations” collection.

Front 103

What is the anatomy of the CFR (3)?

Back 103

1.Fifty titles broken into parts or sections.
2.Titles are by subject but the subjects are aligned with agency responsibility.
3.Government-produced index for searching.

Front 104

How often is the CFR revised?

Back 104

1.Only once per calendar year

Front 105

How do check a regulation for updates?

Back 105

1.Take your citation to the “List of Sections affected” (LSA)
2.Look for your cite in all three links
3.If it is there, go back to the FR and read what has been changed.
CFR->LSA->FR->

Front 106

What is similar to the FR for KY? What does it contain? How often is it updated?

Back 106

1. Administrative Register of Kentucky (ARK)
2. Contains notices of proposed regulations and rule hearings.
3. Monthly

Front 107

What is similar to CFR for KY?

Back 107

The Kentucky Administrative Regulations (KAR)- Updated annually.

Front 108

What is the relationship of the ARK to the KAR?

Back 108

The ARK updates the KAR.

Front 109

What is CALR?

Back 109

Computer-Assisted Legal Research (CALR)- Massive databases of primary and secondary research.

Front 110

What are the disadvantages to CALR (7)?

Back 110

1.Common words
2.Synonyms
3.Spelling issues
4.Missing and ambiguous terms
5.Lack of context (statutes/regs)
6.No title outline to provide context
7.Cannot perform good statute searches

Front 111

What are the advantages to CALR (5)?

Back 111

1.Freedom from West classification schemes
2.Speed and accuracy.
3.Freedom of access and availability.
4.Makes routine things easy (pulling cases)
5.Can help a researcher find specific fact patterns.