Legal Practice Skills Assessment

Boolean Searching

you search for documents using search terms and connectors that describe the relationship among terms

Case Law

Case law includes both those cases that set out the common law and those cases that interpret and apply enacted law

Citation

identifies authority and gives readers the information needed to locate that authority

Citator

Westlaw, LexisNexis-- serve 2 purposes

- Used to determine whether a particular authority is still of law

- They are used to find other authorities that have cited to a particular case, statute, regulation, law review etc.

Dicta

comments made by the court that are not directly related to the issue before it or that are not necessary to its holding

o Ex. If the evidence had established...

Digests

finding tool that is used to find cases

o Contains number of topics (criminal law, evidence, and real estate)

o Under each topic is a subtopic and under subtopics are annotations describing cases that have discussed those subtopics

Enacted Law

System of law created by the legislative and executive branches

o Statutes and regulations

Headnotes

one sentence summary of a rule of law found at the beginning of a court's opinion

o Cannot be cited as authority; written by attorney employed by publishing company

Holding

the courts decision in a particular case; has 2 components

o A reference to the applicable rule of law

o Reference to the specific facts to which that rule was applied

KeyCite

Westlaw cite checking system

o Use to determine if a case, statute or regulation is still good law and to find other authorities that have cited to that case, statute or regulations

Mandatory/Binding authority

Law that is binding on the court deciding the case

o Court must apply that law

o First determine which jurisdiction law applies (federal or state law applies-> if state law, which state)

o Which of that jurisdiction statutes and cases are binding on the court that will be deciding the case

Notes of Decisions

drafted by attorney who work for Thomson West and appear after the text of statutes on Westlaw, in the book form of codes published by West, and in West digest

o Could not be cited

Persuasive authority

Cases, statutes, regulations and secondary authorities that a court may consider, but is not required to follow, in deciding a case

Ex. Georgia Supreme Court case are persuasive authority in the state of Florida

Primary authority/source

the law.

Ex: constitutions, statutes, regulations, & cases.

Secondary authority/source

authority that explains or comments on the law (not binding)

o Practice books

o Treatises

o Law reviews

Sherardize

When you shepardize a case, you cire check the case to determine whether it is still good law and to identify other authorities that have cited that case

Shepard's

LexisNexis cite checking system

o Use to check cases, statutes and regulations

Statute

law enacted by the legislative branch of federal and state governments

Florida State Court System/ Hierarchy

• Florida County Courts

• Florida Circuit Courts

• Florida District Courts of Appeal (DCA)

• Florida Supreme Court