Chapter 4 + 5: Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing

Primary Sources

The resources that provide the actual law; laws are found in statutes, case law, and the Constitution.

Secondary Sources

Tools used to understand the law; one such tool is a legal encyclopedia that explains the law.

Issue

A question that must be decided by a court.

Relevant

Relevant evidence relates directly to the issue; a relevant fact is a fact that is tied directly to the client’s legal question.

Explanatory Facts

These facts help the researcher understand what happened. They are no relevant, in a legal sense, to the issue.

Unnecessary Facts

The factual information in this category is irrelevant to the legal issue.

Bifurcate

To sever from the trial; in family law, it means that the divorce or dissolution may be granted, but the parties will need to come back to court to adjudicate another issue— for example, their property issues.

Legal Encyclopedia

A collection of legal information; a secondary source of the law.

Finding Tools

The resources used to locate primary and secondary sources; for example, a digest.

Annotation

A brief summary of a statute or a case.

Form Book

A legal resource filed with sample forms and explanations on how and when to use the forms; some are online in legal databases.

Law Review

A publication continuing articles written by judges, professors, and attorneys; it also contains case summaries written by law school students. Most law schools publish one or more periodic law reviews each year.

Treatise

A book that reviews a special field of law; a summary of the law on a particular subject; often called a hornbook.

Digest

An index to reported cases, arranged by subject; a short summary of the case is provided.

Case Law

A collection of reported cases.

Reporter

A set of published volumes of cases by courts.

Lexis

A fee-based computer-assisted legal research service provided by LexisNexis.

Westlaw

A fee-based computer-assisted legal research service provided by Thompson-Reuter West.

Bloomberg Law

A fee-based computer-assisted legal research service provided by Bloomberg Law.

Rules of Law

Legal principles that are applied to the facts; generally derived from statutes, case law, and the Constitution.

Holding

The legal principle to be taken from the court’s decision.

Precedent

The example set by the decision of an earlier court for similar cases or similar legal questions that arise in later cases.

Regional Reporter

A set of published volumes of cases by courts in specific regions of the United States, for example, the Pacific Reporter or the Northeastern Reporter.

Brief

A written document that might contain a summary of the facts, issues, rules, and analysis used by a court and a comparison with a client’s facts; a case brief is a short summary of a published case.

stare decisis

“It stands decided”; another term for precent.

Statute

A legislatively created law; a written enactment.

Pocket Part

A removable supplement to a volume of statutory law; includes all changes or additions to the material contained in the hardbound volume.

Computer-assisted Legal Research (CALR)

Legal research done with the use of a computer; includes the use of online services such as Lexis and Westlaw, the Internet, and intranets.

Full-text Search

Legal research method utilized in computer-assisted legal research, in which all documents in a database are searched for certain words.

Shepard’s

A tool used by Lexis to update and validate law.

KeyCite

A tool used by Westlaw to update and validate law.

Copyright

A copyright is a legal protection for authors of “original works of authorship” such as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other works.

Query

Words that constitute a search request when using online materials.

Key Words

Words that describe important aspects of a research question.

Boolean

A special logic used in computerized legal research; uses connective words.

Connectors

Words such as and or or used in a search query to show the relationship between key words or terms.

Wildcard

A symbol used in a word that substitutes for any letter; often an asterisk (*).

Legal Analysis

The process of comparing and contrasting legal facts and legal issues.

Case Brief

A short summary of a case.

Question Presented

A statement of the legal issue presented to the court for resolution.

Adjudicate

To resolve; when the court adjudicates an issue, the issue is resolved. Adjudication is the process of exercising judicial power.

Concurring Opinion

A separate opinion written by one or more justices in a case; this opinion agrees with the ultimate decision of the majority of the court, but with a reasoning that differs from the reasoning of the majority of the court.

Dissenting Opinion

A separate opinion written by one or more justices in a case; this opinion disagrees with the decision of the majority of the court.

Legal Memorandum

An informal interoffice document written to communicate the results of legal research and the legal analysis.