Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Part I Research Process 1
Chapter 1 Introduction to Legal Research 3
A Introduction 3
B The research thought process 3
C A process for legal research 6
Chapter 2 The American Legal System 9
A Sources of law 9
B Types and weight of authority 12
1 Types of authority 12
2 Weight of authority 12
a Secondary authority; always nonbinding 13
b Primary authority: sometimes binding, sometimes nonbinding 13
c Summary of weight of authority 17
C How legal information is organized and cited 18
Chapter 3 Defining a Research Question 21
A What question do you need to answer? 21
B What terms are likely to describe what you are looking for? 24
C Search term chart 25
Chapter 4 Pre-Search Filtering 27
A How pre-search filtering affects research 27
B Criteria for pre-search filtering 29
C A process for pre-search filtering 31
Chapter 5 Research Tools and Search Techniques 35
A Selecting a research tool 35
B Common search techniques: citation, word, and subject searching 36
C Effective word searching 38
1 Types of word searches 38
2 Terms and connectors searching 39
a Terms and connectors search logic 40
b Drafting a terms and connectors search 41
Chapter 6 Working with Search Results 43
A Assessing search results 43
1 The organization of the results 43
2 Telling things apart online 44
3 Post-search filtering 46
B Updating research 48
C Refining, repeating, and ending the search 49
1 Is your research complete? 50
2 What if you do not find anything useful? 51
3 What if you find an overwhelming amount of information? 52
Chapter 7 Keeping Track of What You Find 55
Part II Researching Individual Types of Authority 59
Chapter 8 Legal and NON-Legal Secondary Sources 61
A Introduction 61
1 When secondary sources will be most useful 61
2 Limits on the appropriate use of secondary sources 62
B Methods of researching legal secondary sources 63
C Researching commonly used legal secondary sources 64
1 Legal encyclopedias 64
2 Treatises 65
3 Legal periodicals 66
4 American Law Reports 69
5 Restatements 70
6 Uniform laws and model acts 71
D Researching non-legal secondary sources 72
Chapter 9 Cases 75
A Introduction 75
1 The structure of the court system 75
2 Sources of cases 75
3 The anatomy of a published case 78
4 Unpublished, or non-precedential, opinions 79
B Methods of researching cases 80
C Researching cases using a digest 80
1 Online digest research 81
2 Print research with West digests 82
a Locating the correct digest set 82
b Locating topics and key numbers 85
c Reading case summaries 86
d Updating your research 86
Chapter 10 Citators and Other Updating Tools 87
A Introduction 87
1 The purpose of a citator 87
2 When to use a citator in case research 88
3 Terms and procedural concepts used in citator research 88
B Using Shepard's and KeyCite for case research 89
1 Shepard's in Lexis 89
2 KeyCite in Westlaw 92
C Choosing among citators 94
D Staying up to date with alert and clipping services 95
Chapter 11 Statutes and Court RULES 97
A Introduction 97
1 The publication process for federal statutes 97
2 The organization of statutory codes 98
3 Types and sources of statutory codes 99
B Methods of researching statutes 101
C Using a citator for statutory research 103
D Researching rules of procedure 104
Chapter 12 Federal Legislative History and Administrative Regulations 107
A Federal legislative history 107
1 Introduction 107
2 The process of enacting a federal law 108
3 Types of federal legislative history documents 109
a Bills 109
b Hearings 110
c Floor debates 110
d Committee reports 110
4 Methods of researching federal legislative history documents 111
a Compiled legislative histories in print 112
b Government sources 112
c Commercial services 113
B Federal administrative regulations 114
1 Introduction 114
2 The process of adopting a federal regulation 115
3 Methods of researching federal regulations 115
4 Sources of federal regulations 116
a Government sources 116
b Commercial services 117
5 Using a citator for regulatory research 118
Part III Research Flowcharts 119
A General research flowchart 120
B Nonbinding authority research flowchart 122
C Flowcharts for four common types of research 124
1 State common-law research 125
2 State statutory research flowchart 126
3 Federal statutory research flowchart 127
4 State and federal procedural research flowchart 128
Appendix Selected Research Resources 129
Index 135
