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LEGAL RESEARCH I
FALL 2010

Professor Graves Krishnaswami
Seminars C & D
Wednesdays & Thursdays 9:55 am
Cornell Seminar Room

Introduction to Legal Research

Fifth Hour Legal Research Program
Fall 2014
First Year as a Lawyer
Legal Research (45%)
Other Work
Process of Legal Research
Look at fact pattern and formulate an initial issue statement.
Issue statement = terms
5Ws Plus Who / What / Where / When / Why
TAPP = Things / Actions / People / Places
Jurisdiction/procedural posture/relief sought/legal theory applicable
Familiarize yourself w/area of law
If unfamiliar with the law, usually start with secondary sources
Locate, read and analyze primary authority, cases, statutes, administrative
regulations
Update primary authority to make sure still good law
Use a citator (Shepards, Keycite)
Revise as necessary, and find additional primary or secondary authority
Depends on what you find initially
Constantly evolving process as you sort through issues
Know when to stop (detailed notes will help you).

4
5
Why Start
with
Secondary
Sources?

Secondary
authority
explains the
law.

Gateway to
primary
authority
HOW DO THE TYPES OF SECONDARY
SOURCES DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER?
Specificity of coverage
Depth of coverage
Which secondary source you choose
determined by stage of research youre at as
well as what youre looking for from the
materials
You will usually need to look at several
secondary sources to determine what law
applies to your research plan
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One Good Case Research Method
- Use the Headnotes
- Use the cases and other authority cited by the court (Table
of Authorities)
- Use the Citator (Shepards / Westlaw / Bcite) to find
additional authorities.
- Use the terms and words to build additional searches
One Good Statute Research Method
- Use the Annotations
Headnotes
Cases
Secondary Sources
- Use the Table of Contents
Read other statutes in the statutory scheme
Start Your Research:
Use What You Know
Issue
statement

Words Secondary Sources:
Databases
Index
Table of Contents
Statue
Annotations
Secondary Sources
Cases
Regulations
Case
Headnotes
Citing References
Citators
Table of Authorities
Secondary Sources
Crafting Arguments
Research elements issues

Good Law? Use a Citator
1. Citator = Shepards (Lexis) / Keycite (Westlaw) / Bcite (BloombergLaw)

2. it lists authorities that cite an authority that you have already found.
Using citators is the most technical task -- and one of the most
important -- in legal research. Kuntz, Process of Legal
Research(emphasis added).

3. a citator will indicate how citing cases viewed or used your cited
case.
2 Part Analysis of your case:
1. Subsequent History / Direct History of the case in hand (cited
case): what happened to your case as it progressed
- Judgment Affirmed, Remanded, Pending
2. Treatment of the case in other courts: what did other courts
say about your case
- Distinguished, Overruled, Criticized, Cited, Mentioned,
Followed
- Pay attention to jurisdiction of other court and issue
(headnote).

4. Using Citing Reference to locate additional authority.






Publication of the Law
Type of Law Chronological
Arrangement
(by date)
Topical Arrangement
(by topic)
Case Reporter
Official
Unofficial
Digest
Headnotes
Statute US Statutes at Large Codes
Titles = Subjects
Official (USC)
Unofficial (USCA, USCS)
Annotations
Regulation Register, Federal
Register
Code, Code of Federal
Regulations
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When they resolve issues of law.

Trial court cases usually revolve
around facts, and are therefore rarely
published.

Intermediate court (appellate) cases
are published selectively, given that
many are routine and only of interest
to parties.

Final appellate court (supreme court
/ court of last resort) cases are almost
always published, as they deal with
questions of law.

Unpublished cases are available on
Lexis and Westlaw.

PUBLICATION OF CASE LAW
Publication of Federal Case Law
Court
Official
Reporter
Unofficial Reporter
U.S.
Supreme
Court
United States
Reports =
U.S.

1.) Supreme Court Reporter (West)= S.
Ct.
2) Lawyers Edition (Lexis) = L. Ed.,
L. Ed. 2d

U.S. Courts
of Appeal
N/A 1) Federal Reporter (West) = F., F. 2d,
F. 3d
U.S.
District
Courts
N/A 1) Federal Supplement (West) = F.
Supp., F. Supp. 2d
case law
Appellate and District
Court Opinions
Federal Reporter abbreviations
_ F. _
_ F.2d _
_ F.3d _
Federal Supplement abbreviations
_ F. Supp. _
_ F. Supp. 2d _
Unpublished Cases
Federal Appendix (prints unpublished cases)
_ Fed. Appx. _

Available on Westlaw and Lexis:
2001 WL 1602030
2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 26786

Evaluating Sources: Subtle
Distinctions
1. Precedential v. Non-Precedential / published v. non-published:
- Non-published/reported opinions are available in research databases
- Non-published/reported opinions are available in the Federal
Appendix (unofficial reporter reporting federal cases)
- FRCP 32.1 and local rules: different legal systems permit different legal
authority.
- Remember, a high court decision is virtually always better than on-
point intermediate or trial court decision thats unpublished (even if
more factually on point but you can still use the case for research).
2. Positive law v. Prima Facie Law
- Use reputable official and unofficial codes and websites
- Read use the SOURCE
3. Professor v. Student Law Reviews
- Animal Farm Principle: all secondary authority is persuasive but some is
more persuasive than others (e.g. Restatements, ALRs)
- Indicators of authority: authors experience/education (not format).
Learn More
Morris Cohen, Legal Research in a Nutshell (10
th
ed. West 2010). The Nutshell is
available on course reserve in the law library and on L5 at call number: KF240
.C54 2010. http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b1036421~S1.

Mark K. Osbeck, Impeccable Research: A Concise Guide to Mastering Legal
Research Skills. This text is available on course reserve in the law library.
http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b1035252~S1.

Kent Olson, Principles of Legal Research, 9
th
edition. This text is available on
course reserve in the law library.
http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b865545~S3*eng.

Research Guides, http://library.law.yale.edu/research-guides.

Online Tutorials, http://library.law.yale.edu/research/online-tutorials.





Statutory Research
- Most issues involve statutes.
- Statutes take precedence over common law, and courts rely on
statutory language to resolve disputes, therefore if a statute involved,
locate it first.
- Locating statutes:
- Popular Names Table
- Cases
- Index
- Full text searching can be difficult.
- Use the annotations in an unofficial code (USCA/Weslaw; USCS/Lexis),
to locate secondary sources and case law.

Publication of Statutes
Slip Laws Session Laws Code (Bluebook Rule 12 &
Table 1, p. 112, 19
th
ed.)
When a law is first
published.
Laws collected in
chronological order
(Stat.) (official)
United States Code (U.S.C.)
(official)
United States Code Annotated
(U.S.C.A.) (unofficial) (West)
United States Code Service
(U.S.C.S.) (official) (Lexis)
Codificiation = the Process of placing session laws into the subject code
of the jurisdiction. A session law may cover oneor moresubjects
which are called Titles.

Reading Citations
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-2, Jan 29, 2009, 123 Stat. 3)
codified at 29 U.S.C. 629, 633a, 749a; 42 U.S.C. 2000a, 2000e-5, 2000e-16.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 = Popular Name

P.L. 111-2 = Statute when first enacted; 2
nd
public law passed by the 111
th

Congress.

123 Stat. 3 = Found in Volume 123 on page 3 of the Statutes at Large.

29 U.S.C. 629, 633a, 749a; 42 U.S.C. 2000a, 2000e-5, 2000e-16 = Codified
(placed into the Code) at Title 29 (Labor) at sections 629, 633a, 749a and
Title 42 (Public Health and Welfare) at sections 2000a, 2000e-5, 2000e-16.

Other Examples:
1 U.S.C.S. 103
28 U.S.C.A. 1738C
29 U.S.C. 2611(d)
29 U.S.C.S. 2601 et. seq.
et. seq. = in sequence; and so forth.