Unit 2: Resources

1)Types:

Primary

Secondary

Helpers

2)Library

Books

3) Internet

NY Courts Website

Tanbook

Citation Services

4)Computer Assisted Legal Research

Resources for Legal Research

Types of Sources

A. Primary

B. Secondary

C. Helpers

1

PRIMARY This is the actual law

Constitutions

Statutes

Rules and Regulations

Cases

Constitutions

Constitutions

Federal

New York

Constitutional Law

Case Law

Courts’ interpretation of the constitution)P

RIM

AR

Y

Statutes

Federal

United States Code

United States Code Annotated

United States Code Service

PR

IMA

RY

Statutes

New York

McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of NY, Annotated

Consolidated Law Service

PR

IMA

RY

Rules and Regulations

Federal

Code of Federal Regulations

New York

New York Code, Rules and RegulationsP

RIM

AR

Y

Federal Cases

Supreme Court

Court of Appeals

District Court

PR

IMA

RY

Federal Cases

Supreme Court

United States Reports

Supreme Court Reporter

Lawyers’ Edition

1st Series

2d SeriesPR

IMA

RY

Federal Cases

Court of Appeals

Federal Reporter

1st series

2d series

3d series

PR

IMA

RY

Federal Cases

District Court

Federal Supplement

1st series

2d series

PR

IMA

RY

New York Cases

Court of Appeals

Appellate Division

Appellate Term

Trial Courts

PR

IMA

RY

New York Cases

Court of Appeals

New York Reports

1st series

2d series

3d Series

PR

IMA

RY

New York Cases

Appellate Division

Appellate Division Reports

1st series

2d series

3d SeriesPR

IMA

RY

New York Cases

Appellate Term & Trial Courts

Miscellaneous Reports

1st series

2d series

3d SeriesPR

IMA

RY

Secondary Sources of Law

These are not the law

(The law is found in primary)

They explain the law

They come from

Legal Writers/Commentators

Lawyers

Professors

Secondary Sources of Law

A. Encyclopedias

B. Restatements

C. Hornbooks

SE

CO

ND

AR

Y

Secondary Sources of Law

A.Encyclopedias

American Jurisprudence

New York Jurisprudence

Corpus Juris SecundumSE

CO

ND

AR

Y

Secondary Sources of Law

B. Restatements

Contracts

Torts

Other areas

SE

CO

ND

AR

Y

Secondary Sources of Law

C. Hornbooks

Siegel’s New York Practice

SE

CO

ND

AR

Y

Helpers

Law Dictionary

New York Digests

New York Digests

New York Cases are published in New York Reports (NY, NY2d, NY3d)

This is the official reporter

New York Cases are also published in New York Supplement (NYS)

Published by West

This is unofficial

But it contains more than just the case….

HE

LP

ER

S

New York Digests

The West editors take a case and adds headnotes

Headnotes are a summary of a legal point made in the case

There can be one to many headnotes per case

it depends on how many legal points there are in a particular case

HE

LP

ER

S

New York Digests

What do they do with all those headnotes?

Each headnote gets a keynumber based on similar rules

They organize them into topics and publish them in Digests

Use them to find similar casesHE

LP

ER

S

The Books in Our Library

Books in Our Library

General

Federal

New York

2

Books in Our Library

General

Corpus Jurisprudence Secundum

Law Dictionary

Law Thesaurus

Text Books

Books in Our Library

Federal

US Reports & Lawyers Edition

US Supreme Court Digests

Code of Federal Regulations

US Code & US Code Service

Books in Our Library

New York

McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated

New York Supplement

New York Digests

The Internet

The Internet

NY Courts Website

Search Engines

3

The Internet

NY Courts Website

New York Style Manual (Tanbook)

Citation Services

The Internet

Search Engines

Google

Bing

COMPUTER-ASSISTEDLEGAL RESEARCH

On line Legal Research Services

LexisNexis

Westlaw

4