| Contents Notes |
Your legal companion -- 1. Quick legal research tips -- 2. An overview of legal research -- Patience and perspective -- How to find (and feel at home in) a law library -- Legal research on the Internet -- A basic approach to legal research in the law library -- Six time-saving research tips -- An online search strategy -- Understand the legal uncertainty principle -- Know when you're done -- 3. An overview of the law -- What is the law? -- Foundations of American law -- The increasing importance of statutes and regulations -- The development of American common law -- Where modern American law comes from -- About going to court -- 4. Putting your questions into legal categories -- The land of the law -- Find the broad legal category for your problem -- Identify specific terms for your problem -- Searching by subject matter categories on the Internet -- Key word searching on the Internet -- Searching with Google -- 5. Getting some background information -- How background resources can help -- Self-help law resources -- Law textbooks -- Legal encyclopedias -- Form books -- Practice manuals -- Law reviews and other periodicals -- Specialized loose-leaf materials -- Treatises and monographs -- Restatements of the law -- Background resources on the Internet -- 6. Constitutions, statutes, regulations and ordinances -- Constitutional research -- Introduction to federal statutes -- How to find statutes in the United States code -- How to find a recent or pending federal statute online -- Finding out-of-date federal statutes in the law library -- Finding state statutes in the law library and on the Internet -- Finding recently-enacted or pending state statutes -- How to read statutes -- The importance of cases that interpret statutes -- Using words and phrases to interpret statutes -- Using Attorney General opinions to interpret statutes -- Using legislative history to interpret statutes -- Using uniform law histories to interpret statutes -- Regulations -- Procedural statutes and rules -- Local law, ordinances -- 7. Understanding case law -- What is a case? -- How cases affect later disputes -- 8. How cases are published -- Federal cases -- State court cases -- Keeping case reporters up-to-date -- The newest cases -- Publishing cases on the Internet -- 9. Finding cases -- Interpreting case citations -- How to find cases in the law library -- How to find state cases on the Internet -- Finding federal case law on the Internet -- Using VersusLaw to research federal and state case law -- Using Westlaw to find cases by key words and other search criteria -- The next step -- 10. Shepard's, digests and the Internet : expand and update your research -- Shepard's citations for cases -- Shepardize! online -- The West digest system -- 11. How to write a legal memorandum -- Why prepare a legal memorandum? -- How to prepare a legal memorandum -- Research hypotheticals and memoranda -- Research problem : government tort liability hypothetical (Texas) -- Research problem : burglary hypothetical (California) -- Research problem : alimony hypothetical (West Virginia) -- Online research project, March 2007 -- 12. The legal research method : examples -- The facts -- Classify the problem -- Select a background resource -- Use the legal index -- Get an overview of your research topic -- Use Shepard's citations for cases -- Check the pocket parts -- Use Shepard's and digests to find on-point cases -- Summary -- Appendix. Glossary of legal terms. A guide that explains how to do legal research, including navigating law libraries, using the Internet, writing legal memorandums, and more. |
