law refresher ia part ia homework review – april 2 part ii – april 23
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Law Refresher IA
Part IA Homework Review – April 2
Part II – April 23
Primary Sources of Law
Cases Statutes Regulations
-------------------------------- Federal State
U.S. Court System
U.S. District Courts – trial courts U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal – intermediate
appellate courts U.S. Supreme Court
Case Reporters
U.S. District Courts– Federal Supplement (F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d)
U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal– Federal Reporter (F., F.2d, F.3d)
U.S. Supreme Court Case Reporters
United States Reports (U.S.)– Published by U.S. government
United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition (L.Ed., L.Ed.2d)– Published by LexisNexis
Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.)– Published by West
Case Citation Form
Gonzales v. Williams, 192 U.S. 1,
24 S.Ct. 177, 48 L.Ed. 317 (1904).
First number = volume of case reporter
Second number = page number of first page of decision
Case Digests
Organized by legal subject West key number Includes abstract of case and citation to case
reporter Multivolume descriptive word index
Federal Practice Digest Atlantic Digest
Why Can’t I Find the Case?
Trial court decisions – small % published– State trial court decisions rarely published (except
New Jersey and Pennsylvania); courthouse copy
Case settled – no opinion Jury trial – jury verdict form only; not published Unpublished opinion
– Written opinion but judge decides not to publish; copy available at courthouse
Federal Statutes
United States Code (U.S.C.)– Published by U.S. government
United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.)– Published by LexisNexis– Princeton does not own print version
United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.)– Published by West
Statutory Citation Forms
39 U.S.C. § 3001(k)(3).
39 U.S.C.A. § 3001(k)(3) (Supp. 2002).
39 U.S.C.S. § 3001(k)(3).
First number = number of title in code
Second number = number of section or subsection
Federal Regulations
Federal Register (Fed. Reg.)– Published every business day– Proposed regulations, final regulations and
comments
Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.)– Organized by subject
Regulation Citation Form
30 C.F.R. § 57.5001 (2002).
First number = no. of title in C.F.R.
Second number = no. of section within title
Hint: If the citation contains a period, it is likely a citation to the C.F.R.
New Jersey Court System
New Jersey Superior Court, Civil, Family, Equity and Criminal Divisions – trial court
– New Jersey Superior Court Reports (N.J. Super.)– Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)
New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division– New Jersey Superior Court Reports (N.J. Super.)– Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)
New Jersey Supreme Court– New Jersey Reports (N.J.) – Atlantic Reporter (A., A.2d)
Older New Jersey Cases (prior to 1948)
New Jersey Law Reports (N.J.L.) New Jersey Equity Reports (N.J. Eq.) New Jersey Miscellaneous Reports (N.J. Misc.)
New Jersey Case Citation
ACLU of New Jersey, Inc. v. County of Hudson, 352 N.J. Super. 44, 799 A.2d 629 (2002).
Parallel citation: first to the official state reporter, then to regional reporter
New Jersey Statutes
New Jersey Statutes Annotated
N.J.S.A. § 18A:73-43.2 (2002).
18A = number of title
73 = number of chapter
43.2 = number of section
New Jersey Regulations
New Jersey Register (N.J. Reg.) New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J. Admin.
Code)
Verifying Law is Current
Shepard’s– Shepardizing– By LexisNexis
KeyCite– By Westlaw
Electronic Availability
All published federal and state case law since 1789 (even some unpublished)
Nearly all codified federal and state statutes since about 1990
All federal laws since 1789 Nearly all law reviews since early 1990’s
– Major law reviews since first volume (Hein)
Why Use Print?
Statutory research Case Digests Legal encyclopedias
Putting It All Together
Inexperienced Researchers– Let secondary sources guide researcher through
cases and statutes– Secondary Sources
Legal encyclopedias Law Reviews and Journals
Experienced Researchers– Statutes and Regulations– Then Cases
Law Refresher – Part IIApril 23rd
Secondary Sources– Law review databases– Legal encyclopedias