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U.S. Legal Research

U.S. Legal Research. Last updated 3/12/2009. Characteristics of U.S. Legal Research. Complex and Unwieldy Three Branches of Government: Executive Legislative Judicial Federal and State Law U.S. Common Law System.

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U.S. Legal Research

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  1. U.S. Legal Research Last updated 3/12/2009

  2. Characteristics of U.S. Legal Research • Complex and Unwieldy • Three Branches of Government: • Executive • Legislative • Judicial • Federal and State Law • U.S. Common Law System

  3. [Untitled image of three branches of United States government] . Retrieved 3/13/2009 from http://www.ohagan.net/courses/ap_gov/lec_notes_00.htm

  4. Primary Sources: Constitutions, Statutes, Court Decisions, Administrative RegulationsSecondary Sources: American Law Reports (ALR), Restatements, Treatises, Law Reviews, etc. Sources of Law

  5. Statutes and Codes • Federal statutes are codified in the United States Code. A Code is defined as: A collection of all the current laws of general application, organized by subject

  6. United States Code • The official code for federal statutes • Divided into 50 “titles” or subjects • e.g. 8 U.S.C. §471 (2000)

  7. A federal statute starts out as a bill, introduced in a session of Congress Examples: • H.R. 250 • S. 2

  8. Slip Law Definition: • An individual copy of a law published shortly after enactment.

  9. Example of a citation to a slip law • Pub. L. No. 105-159 • Read as: the 159th public law passed by the 105th Congress

  10. Session Laws Definition: • A collection of all laws passed during a legislative session arranged in chronological order

  11. Session Laws for Federal Statutes • Are in the Statutes at Large e.g. 99 Stat. 93 (1985) • Read as: the law beginning on page 93 of the 99th volume of the Statutes at Large

  12. Public Lawsare published in chronological order and bound into: • Statutes at Large (official) • U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News (commercial) Citation: • “Drug and Household Substance Mailing Act of 1990,” P.L. 101-493, 104 Stat. 1184

  13. Federal and States Cases • Interpret statutes (regulations, constitutional provisions, etc.) • Judge-made common law when no written law pertains

  14. Court Structure of TexasTaken from http://www.courts.state.tx.us/

  15. Taken from http://www.cusd.com/calonline/apgov/module4/lesmod4/4_15.htm

  16. U.S. Supreme Court Citation Elements: • Parties • volume-reporter-page • (year of decision [NEVER the court!]) Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962)

  17. Federal Circuit Court Citation Elements: • Parties • volume-reporter-page • (court [if needed to specify jurisdiction] and year of decision) Sierra Club v. Larson, 2 F.3d 462 (1st Cir. 1993)

  18. Elements: Parties volume-reporter-page (court [if needed to specify jurisdiction] and year of decision) Federal District Court Citation United States v. Bin Laden, 146 F.Supp.2d 373 (S.D.N.Y 2001)

  19. Elements: Parties volume-reporter-page of official reporter parallel reference(s) to regional reporter(s) (year of decision [NEVER the court!]) NY Court of Appeals Citation[state court of last resort] Witter v. Taggart, 78 N.Y.2d 234, 577 N.E.2d 338, 573 N.Y.S.2d 146 (1991).

  20. NY Appellate Division Citation[state courts of intermediate appellate jurisdiction] Adamy v. Ziriakus, 231 A.D.2d 80, 659 N.Y.S.2d 623 (4th Dep’t 1997). Elements: Parties volume-reporter-page of official reporter parallel reference(s) to regional reporter (court [if needed to specify jurisdiction] and year of decision)

  21. NY Supreme Court Citation[trial-level courts] Dorfman v. Berman, 186 Misc. 2d 415, 718 N.Y.S.2d 142 (Sup. Ct. Albany County 2000). Elements: Parties volume-reporter-page of official reporter parallel reference(s) to regional reporter (court [if needed to specify jurisdiction] and year of decision)

  22. The Thirteen Federal Judicial Circuits

  23. Regional Reporters (State Cases)

  24. What is “Updating”? • Remember, a statute or case is only good law if it has not been overruled, superseded, repealed, or otherwise invalidated. • Updating is the process of verifying that the statute or case is still good law.

  25. In the Bad Old Days… • Updating was done via books called “Shepards Citators” • Today, you would simply use Westlaw or Lexis, and view the results on your computer screen.

  26. I cannot teach you how to Shepardize… • Better than the tutorials already available from Lexis and Shepards. • These tutorials, available at http://web.lexis.com/help/multimedia/detect.asp?sPage=mom, are VITAL to your understanding of how to update cases and statutes.

  27. References [Untitled image of three branches of United States government] . Retrieved 3/13/2009 from http://www.ohagan.net/courses/ap_gov/lec_notes_00.htm Texas Courts Online. (n.d.). [Untitled image of the Texas court structure]. Retrieved 3/13/2009 from http://www.courts.state.tx.us/. [Untitled image of three random volumes of the United States Code Annotated]. Unknown date. [Untitled image of the federal court structure]. Retrieved 4/16/2008 from http://www.cusd.com/calonline/apgov/module4/lesmod4/4_15.htm (now offline). [Regional Reporters (States Cases): National Reporter System Map. ] Retrieved 3/13/2009 from http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/repdig.html. [The Thirteen Federal Judicial Circuits]. Retrieved 3/13/2009 from http://www.slaw.neu.edu/library/onellegalpractice.htm

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