Legal Research & Secondary Sources

What does a research plan help you keep track of?

Background information, legal issue statements, legal authorities, and research notes

What are the primary components of a Research Action Plan?

Background, Client’s Facts, Governing Law, Legal Issues and Keywords, Binding Authorities and the Most Relevant Persuasive Authorities

T/F: The first step of legal research is background reading (using secondary sources to help find and understand the law)

True

T/F: The second step of legal research involves using digests and reporters to organize and read case law

True

T/F: The third step of legal research is using legal citators to check currency and treatment of the law

True

What is the first question you should ask when starting legal research?

What are the key facts and legal issues?

What is the second question you should ask when starting legal research?

What is the jurisdiction?

What is the third question you should ask when starting legal research?

What are potential search terms we can use?

What is the fourth question you should ask when starting legal research?

What work product is being requested?

What is the fifth question you should ask when starting legal research?

What is the deadline for the work?

What is the sixth question you should ask when starting legal research?

Do you have to refine your search at all?

What are the four primary methods to generate more search terms?

Use the legal issue as a search term, use the “5 Ws,” use the “TARPP” Method, and use the “KWHL” method

What are the “5ws”?

Who, what, when, where, and how

What does “TARPP” stand for?

Things, Actions, Remedies, Parties, and Places involved in the fact pattern

What does “KWHL” stand for?

What do you Know, What do you Want to know, How will you learn it, and What did you Learn.

T/F: Case law is primary mandatory authority if it comes from a higher court within the same jurisdiction.

True

T/F: Case law is primary persuasive authority if it comes from outside the jurisdiction

True

T/F: Secondary sources are never mandatory authority

True

T/F: The persuasiveness of secondary sources vary

True

What are the four things you need to think about when reading secondary sources?

Currency, relevance, authority, and citations

T/F: Lexis and Westlaw use both Natural Language and Advanced Boolean searches

True

What tool tracks the validity of legal sources with Shepard’s on Lexis and KeyCite on Westlaw?

Citators

T/F: You can use search engines to find both primary and secondary sources

True

T/F: Secondary sources are written by trusted legal experts who explain, interpret, locate, and update primary law

True

T/F: Online digests include Headnotes, Topics, and Key Numbers

True

What are the primary types of secondary sources?

Legal encyclopedias, Treatises and Study Aids, American Law Reports, Law Review Articles, Model Jury Instructions, and Restatements of Law

Where can you browse or search the section titles to find relevant discussions of your legal issue?

Table of Contents

Where can you look up keywords, topics, and other terms that will guide you to helpful information?

Index

Where can you find relevant cases and other law across multiple jurisdictions?

Footnotes and Table of Authorities