Federal Legal Print Materials

Legal Writing

Prof. Glassman - - Spring 2010

US Supreme Court - Print

• United States Reports – Official– Citation format :410 US 113

• Supreme Court Reporter (West’s)– Citation format: 93 S. Ct. 705

• United States Supreme Court Reports (Lawyer’s Edition)– Citation format 35 L.Ed.2d 147

Federal Reporter and Federal Supplement

• 13 U.S. circuit courts of appeal

• The decisions of the circuit courts are published in the Federal Reporter® Citation format: 37 F.3d 300

• Federal district (trial) level courts selectively published in Federal Supplement, 1932- Citation format: 75 F Supp2d 881

Other Federal Cases

• Federal Appendix

• Federal Rules Decisions

• Federal Cases

• Bankruptcy Reporter and Digests

Print Finding Tools for Federal Cases

• US Supreme Court Digest• Federal Practice Digest (for all federal cases)• Digest of US Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer’s

Ed• Shepard’s US Citations• U.S. Law Week• References in treatises, encyclopedias, annotations

in codes

Federal Court Rules - Print

• Title 28 USCA

• Rules volumes USCS

• Federal Local Court Rules

• Soft cover annual compilations

• Federal Practice treatises

Statutes and Annotated Codes

• Enacted law first published officially as slip law, assigned Public Law Number

• Public laws compiled in chronological order in The Statutes at Large

• The public law then changes the statutory code to:• bring all laws on the same topic together• eliminate all repealed or expired statutes• unite amendments with the original statute

• This process is called codification • the United States Code is divided into 50 titles, often

called codes• Title 17 is the Copyright law• Title 26 is the Tax Code

United States Code (USC)

• Issued every six years with annual update : drawback lag time (but see Internet sites)

• Arranged into 50 titles

• References the Statutes at Large citation, historical notes

• Includes index, table of acts cited by popular name, conversion tables

• NO references to interpreting case law, regulations

Cross-references(to other USCA sections)

Law review and journalcommentaries

Library references (tomany secondary sources)

References to topic and key numbers

Texts and treatises

Annotated Codes: USCA (West), USCS (Lexis)

History and Notes of Decisions

• Note citation to Statues at Large, and historical notes

• Notes of decisions, summaries of cases interpreting the statute.

• For some statutes, decisions notes may be hundreds of pages long.

Print Research Aids

• An alphabetical General Index aids you in finding relevant statute sections.

• Popular Name Table to help you determine where a statute is codified

United States Code Annotated Updates

• Cumulative pocket parts

• Interim pamphlets and statutory supplements that include the public law changes to the code and recent notes of decisions from cases that have construed the statute since the last supplement was published

• U. S. Code Congressional and Administrative News ( USCCAN) issues monthly pamphlets.

• After each session, the monthly USCCAN pamphlets are reissued in a bound volume.

Most Current Print Public Law (Statutes at Large and Legislative Histories)

Administrative Sources – Regulations -Federal Register

• Published every week day, except federal holidays

• All daily issues from a year constitute a single volume with consecutive pagination throughout the year

• A single issue contains about 300 pages

• Annual volumes of the Federal Register can exceed 60,000 pages

• Contents are required to be judicially noticed by 44 USCA 1507

Federal Register

In Each Issue of the Federal Register

• Table of Contents

• CFR Parts Affected section

• Presidential Proclamations, Executive Orders, Reorganization Plans, and Administrative Orders

• Agency Final Rules, Proposed Rules and Notices

• Sunshine Act Meeting notices

• Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations

• Reader Aids

Federal Register

Federal Register Table of Contents

• arranged by agency name.• lists regulations (rules), proposed regulations (rules), and

notices.

Federal Register

Flightcrew compartment

Federal Aviation Administration

CFR Parts Affected in This Issue

• Lists document in numerical order by CFR title and part

• Appears at the front of each print issue after the Table of Contents

• Indicates whether documents affecting CFR parts are regulations or proposed regulations

• Cites the page numbers where relevant documents begin

Federal Register

p.2112

Code of Federal Regulations

• Regulations published chronologically in the Federal Register are codified and arranged by title, then by chapter (one agency’s regulations) and finally by subject in the CFR

• CFR is divided into 50 titles, just like the USCA– Some titles covering the same subjects are numbered the

same in the CFR and in the USCA; others are not• Each title is divided into chapters, subchapters, parts, and

sections• A regulation is cited by title, part, and section, i.e.,

37 CFR 2.167 (Title 37, Part 2 Section 167)

CFR

• Soft-cover volumes of the CFR are issued each year in sets on a staggered, quarterly basis:– Titles 1– 6 are current through January 1– Titles 17 – 27 are current through April 1– Titles 29 – 41 are current through July 1– Titles 42 – 50 are current through October 1

• Each new set contains the text of all regulations in force as of the current through date.

• Color of each set of volumes is changed every year; a current full set may contain different colored volumes, depending on the time of the year

• Title 3, which contains Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders, is always white

CFR

Research Tools in Each Volume of the CFR

• Table of Contents listing all material within the book: titles, subtitles, chapters, subchapter(s), parts, and sections

• Material Approved for Incorporation by Reference ,which is regulatory material not published in the Federal Register or CFR

• Table of CFR Titles and Chapters• Redesignation Tables to help trace new location of parts

and sections of a regulation• List of CFR Sections Affected in the volume

CFR

• Agencies are broken down by chapter (part) and then by subchapter.

• Immediately preceding each part is a Table of Contents for the individual regulations contained within that part.

Title 14

Subchapter D

Part 121

CFR Tables of Contents

121.313

Table of Contents

Title 14Parts 60-139

List of CFR Sections Affected in each volume indicates the type of change that was made.

CFR

List of CFR Sections Affected

Title 14Parts 60-139

Updating Regulations in Print

• LSA: List of CFR Sections Affected– Issued monthly– Indicates final and proposed

changes made since the last publication of the CFR set

CFR

Updating Regulations in Print

• CFR Parts Affected– In each volume of the Code of

Federal Regulations– Incorporated in the cumulative

list in the Reader Aids section• CFR Parts Affected in this Issue

– In each daily issue of the Federal Register

CFR

Agency Decisions, Orders Opinions

• Publication patterns vary – check for official reporter

• Commercial looseleaf services

• Agency websites – e.g.: National Labor Relations Board Decisions and Orders ;

- US Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Appeals Board Decisions

Federal Secondary Sources

• Finding tools

• Commentary and analysis

• Persuasive authority

• Forms and practice aids

Legal Encyclopedias

• Provides a broad overview of a topic

• Identifies specialized vocabulary

• Provides citations to primary materials and ALR annotations

• Cross-references other secondary material

American Jurisprudence 2d (Am Jur 2d)• The print version of Am Jur 2d consists of

– 120 volumes– more than 430 titles

• Each volume contains a– Table of Contents– Table of Parallel References– Table of Statutes and Rules Cited– Index for articles in the volume

• Topics are preceded by a detailed scope note, general cross-references, and an outline of the topic

Corpus Juris Secundum(C.J.S.)

• C.J.S. contains 400 broad topics, each divided into subtopics, which are sub-divided into sections

• There are 150 volumes.1

1 The last volume is numbered 101 because more than one volume may have the same number

• ALR editors select and report cases/topics that represent specific legal issues that are unsettled or changing and that are of interest to to many lawyers.

• A legal scholar writes an “annotation,” often called an ALR article, often using a case as the basis of the annotation.

• The annotation explores the law of the jurisdictions that have dealt with this issue.

• The author uses this law to provide an

objective analysis of this area of the law.

AMERICAN LAW REPORTS; ALR FED

• In print, American Law Reports consists of eight series

– Federal Series (ALR Fed. ALR Fed 2d), 1969 to date, analyzes only federal issues

-- Sixth Series (ALR6th), Fifth Series (ALR5th), Fourth Series (ALR4th), 1980 – to date, analyze only state issues

– Third Series (ALR3d), Second Series (ALR2d), First Series (ALR) 1919 - 1980 analyze both state and federal issues

Finding Aids ALR Indexes

• Multivolume ALR Index

– lists articles by subject matter

– includes all ALR volumes, except those in the First Series

– is updated with annual pocket parts

• ALR Federal Quick Index

• ALR Quick Index for ALR 3d, 4th, and 5th series

Finding Aids ALR Digest

• ALR Digest is divided into more than 400 topics arranged alphabetically.

• Under each topic are headnotes from cases reported in the entire ALR family along with a list of the annotations that deal with the particular subject in question.

• ALR and ALR2d have digest sets

• ALR3d, ALR4th, ALR5th, ALR6th and ALR Fed are combined in one digest set.

Superseding and Supplementing Annotations

• The analysis of the law as presented in an early annotation may be changed by later cases.

• Annotations in the first and second series were often supplemented by a later annotation and the original and the supplementing annotations had to be read together.

• Annotation History Table in the last volume of the ALR Index gives the history of Annotations in all the ALR series.

Superseding and Supplementing Annotations

• The analysis of the law as presented in an early annotation may be changed by later cases.

• Annotations in the first and second series were often supplemented by a later annotation and the original and the supplementing annotations had to be read together.

• Annotation History Table in the last volume of the ALR Index gives the history of Annotations in all the ALR series.

Treatises

• Treatises are– written by legal scholars – good resources for discussions of cases and statutes

relating to a particular area of the law– can be critical, analytical, explanatory, or practical in

nature• Wright and Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure; KF

8840.W68) Nimmer on Copyright: a treatise on the law of literary, musical and artistic property, and the protection of ideas. Bender, 1963- KF2991.5 .N5 1978

Research Guides

• Federal Legal Materials

• Legislative History Research Guide

• Civil Procedure Resource Guide

• Congressional Information Service Legislative Resources

• Evidence Law Resource Guide