LRW Legal Systems & Sources Test

Treatises

A secondary source that consists of single or multi-volume books on particular legal subjects

Law Review Articles

A secondary source that is useful for its depth of analysis and extensive footnotes; often deals with specialized or developing areas of the law

American Jurisprudence & Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS)

The two national legal encyclopedias

ALR Annotations

A secondary source that consists of articles that collect information and authorities from all U.S. jurisdictions related to a case or specific area of the law

North Western Reporter

The regional reporter that contains opinions from WI state courts

Uniform Court Rule

The rule that requires that WI Courts of Appeals follow sister districts on questions of law that have already been addressed

Circuit Court

The name of trial courts in WI

Four

The number of appellate districts in WI

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

The full and formal name of the federal appellate court that includes WI

Westlaw

The headnotes on this research tool are prepared by editors, not the court

Lexis

The headnotes on this research site are not written by an editor, but taken directly from the language of the court's opinion

Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg

The three most popular fee-based online legal research services

A red flag or red stop sign

The symbol in a KeyCite (or Shepherd's) that tells you the case has significant negative treatment for at least one point of law

Citing references

The part of a Westlaw case display that shows everything that has ever cited to your case

State trial court decisions

These court decisions are not typically available on Westlaw, Lexis, or Bloomberg

The United States Code (USC)

The official codification of United States statutory law

(1) Bill, (2) Slip Law, (3) Session Law, (4) Codified Statute

The order that a bill follows to become a codified statute

Titles

The U.S. code is divided into 53 of these, organized by subject

Annotated Codes/Statutes

A source that provides summaries of cases interpreting a statute, legislative history pertaining to that statute, and citations to articles related to the statute

Canons of Construction

Courts sometimes apply these principles to interpret the meaning of ambiguous statutes

En banc

Courts use this legal term to refer to a case heard or to be heard before all judges of a court

Primary law

Law that is created by a branch of government, such as case opinions, statutes, and regulations

Concurring opinion

An opinion that agrees with the court's disposition of the case but is written to express a particular judge's reasoning

Certiorari

If the Supreme Court decides to review one or more issues in a case, it grants this

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit

Decisions by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals may be overruled by which courts

The state's Supreme Court

When a federal district court hears a case involving a state law, what court decisions are binding?

The U.S. Supreme Court

If a state court of appeals hears a case involving a federal issue, which court decisions are binding?

A practice guide/practice manual

A secondary source that can be a helpful place to start if you're facing a specific, state issue

State law

The type of issue that the U.S. Supreme Court is not binding authority on

January 1, 2000

Opinions published on this day onwards must be cited with a public domain citation

Pinpoint citations

A reference to a specific page in a case where a proposition can be found

Wis. Stat. Ann.

The appropriate abbreviation for Wisconsin Statutes Annotated

Stare decisis

Latin for "to stand on what has been decided"

Secondary authority

This kind of authority is never binding but may be persuasive

Per curiam

An opinion "of the court" with no individual judge identified

The United States Statutes at Large

The location where federal session laws are published at the end of a legislative session

The Federal Reporter

The formal name for the reporter that publishes federal appellate court decisions

Appellant

The party that lost at the original court and is filing their first appeal

Respondent/Appellee

The party that won in the lower court and must defend the lower court's decision

Complaint

An initial pleading that starts litigation and states the basis for jurisdiction, the claims, and the desired relief

Allegation

Something asserted as a matter of fact

Motion

A request, filed by either party, asking the court to enter an order of some sort or take an action of some sort

Dicta

Assertions or statements by the writing judge on points that aren't necessary to address an issue presented by a party

Summary judgment

A judgment granted on a claim about which there is no genuine issue of material fact and upon which the movant is entitled to prevail as a matter of law

Jurisdiction

An area of authority over which a governing body has control

Mandatory or Binding Authority

Law from within the governing jurisdiction; binding on all parties and their dispute; always given the most weight in a legal analysis

Persuasive authority

Law from other jurisdictions; not binding

Common law

A body of law developed entirely by judicial decisions

(1) Consistency + Fairness, (2) Predictability, (3) Allows for diversity across jurisdictions

Three Reasons Stare Decisis is Important

(1) Statutes (2) Legislative History

Two Kinds of Authority Created by the Legislative Branch

(1) Regulations, (2) Executive Orders

Two Kinds of Authority Created by the Executive Branch

(1) Creates rights and duties where legislation does not exist, (2) Interprets existing legislation, (3) Applies laws to different fact patterns

Three ways the judiciary creates law

Policy

The broader moral, philosophical, or social goals behind a law

Yes

Are decisions of one appellate district in WI binding on the other three?

(1) Provide clarity about the issues to the reader, (2) Tell reader where the issues are in the argument, (3) Dispose of elements not at issue

Purposes of Roadmaps

(1) Tell the reader the conclusion for a section, (2) Visually break up blocks of text, (3) Act as a table of contents by stating main points for readers

Purposes of Point Headings

No

In a WI case citation, should a period go after "App"?

Numbered paragraphs

After Jan. 1, 2000, what should WI case citations pincite to?

U.S. Reports (U.S.)

The reporter you should use to cite to U.S. Supreme Court decisions

Federal Reporter (F.2d)

The reporter you should use to cite to U.S. Circuit Court decisions

Federal Supplement (F. Supp. 2d)

The reporter you should use to cite to U.S. District Court decisions

Trigger Facts

Those facts on which a court's decision turns

Thirteen (11 Numbered + D.C. + Federal)

The number of circuit courts of appeals (number circuits + D.C. + Fed. Circuit)

!

When running a terms-and-connectors search, you should use this symbol at the end of a word to ensure the search encompasses all variations of the root

*

When running a terms-and-connectors search, you should use this symbol if you want to change one character

Parenthesis

When running a terms-and-connectors search, you should use these characters to tell the search engine to look for a specific phrase first

Quotation Marks

When running a terms-and-connectors search, you should use these characters to tell the search engine to read terms together

/n (where n is the number of words)

Use this connector to find one term within a specified number of words of another term

/s

Use this connector to find one term within the same sentence as another

/p

Use this connector to find one term within the same paragraph as another

Restatements

A secondary source that compiles rules, illustrations, and commentary to organize and clarify principles of common law; organized by subject matter

Loose-leaf services

A secondary source that compiles statutes, regulations, legislative history materials, cases, etc. and is particularly helpful for researching specialized areas of law

Hornbooks/Nutshells

A secondary source that is similar to treatises and practice manuals, but shorter and simpler

Digests

A resource for legal research that is a collection of short case summaries (annotations), organized alphabetically by subject matter

Orange Symbol (Box with a Q in Lexis, Circle with a warning symbol in Westlaw)

The symbol you will see in Lexis or Westlaw if a case may have been implicitly overruled or abrogated

Yellow symbol (triangle in Lexis, flag in Westlaw)

The symbol you will see in Lexis or Westlaw if a case has some negative treatment

No

When citing U.S. Code previously referenced, (id) do you include the word "at" between Id. and the statute?

Periods and commas

These punctuation marks go inside quotation marks

Semi-colons

These punctuation marks go outside quotation marks

Books Unbound

A subscription-based online library of WI-specific legal resources available through the State Bar of WI

Headnote

Usually associated with a topic and key number, this is an individual point of law connected to the facts of a particular reported case; several of them may appear before the text of the opinion, and each case has at least one

Slip Opinion/Slip Law

As soon as it is issued by the court, this is binding precedent even though it hasn't been published in a reporter yet; its name derives from the way it used to be distributed

Wisconsin Reports

This state reporter contains opinions from the WI Supreme Court and the WI Court of Appeals

(1) Natural Language Search and (2) Boolean/Terms & Connectors SEarch

The two primary types of searches that legal researches use on electronic databases

Wis. Stat. § X

The short form citation to use when citing to a WI statute

United States Code (USC), United States Code Annotated (USCA) and United States Code Service

The official and unofficial codifications of U.S. statutes (3 total)

Wis. Stat. § X (Year Range)

The long form citation to use when citing to a WI statute

Precedent

A binding prior court decision

Constitution

A document that describes the basic structure of a government, the inherent powers of the government, and limits its authority to govern

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit

The courts that can overrule decisions from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

Blue Pages

The part of the Bluebook that practitioners use to determine how to cite in documents filed with the court

Parallel Citations

A citation contains these when it includes more than one way to locate the cited authority

Unified Court

Because the WI Court of Appeals is this type of court, the published decisions of all four districts of the court are binding on each other

Case of first impression

A type of case/issue that the court has never faced before

Subject matter jurisdiction

The legal subject areas in which a court has authority to hear cases

Territorial jurisdiction

The geographical area over which a court has authority to hear cases

Personal jurisdiction

A court's authority over parties to a lawsuit

Citators

A legal research tool used to validate authorities and find other cases that cite a given authority

Shepards

Lexis's Citator

KeyCite

Westlaw's Citator