Abigail F. Ellsworth Ross

President, RoFinCo, LLC

June 14, 2015

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Copyright 2015, Abigail F.E. Ross

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Overview of U.S Legal SystemLegislativeExecutiveJudicial

Sources of Basic DocumentsLegislature: LawsAgencies: RegulationsCourts: Cases

How to Research US Law

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Legislative Branch

US Congress (House & Senate)

Executive Branch

President & Regulatory Agencies

Judicial Branch

Courts

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*Legislature – Elected Representatives

* House of Representatives - 435 Members

* Senate - 100 Senators

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Primary legislative sources

Bills, committee reports, enacted laws

Secondary legislative sources

Bill-tracking, newsletters, treatises

Congressional Record

See notes for discussion of quick description ofbill-making process

©2004 West

http://www.mikewirthart.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/howlawsmadeWIRTH2.jpg

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THOMAS – Library of Congress - FREE

Offices and Members of Congress

http://thomas.loc.gov/links/

OpenCongress – www.opencongress.org

US Senate - FREEhttp://www.senate.gov/

US House of Representatives - FREE

http://www.house.gov/

Office of the Clerk, US House of Reps - FREE

http://clerk.house.gov/

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Congressional Research Service

http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/

Law Library Research Xchange (LLRX) - FREE

http://www.llrx.com/features/crsreports.htm

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THOMAS – Library of Congress - FREE

Bill summaries, Congressional Record, committee reports,treaties, public laws, etc.

http://www.loc.gov/law/

GPO (Government Printing Office) – FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

Statutes At Large- (Office of the Federal Register, NARA)- FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=STATUTE

USCCAN – PAY

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LLSDC Legislative Source Book - FREE

http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/

GPO Access – FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionUScode.action?collec

tionCode=USCODE

Vendors - PAY

Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg/BNA, Lois Law, etc.

Print edition = official edition

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President

Cabinet

Executive Agencies – such as:

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of State

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of the Treasury

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Code of Federal Regulations – FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR

Federal Register - FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=FR

The President - FREE

http://www.whitehouse.gov

Executive Agencies – FREE

http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/fedgov.html

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1) The Regulatory Agency looks at changes needed andstarts the review process

2) Proposed Regulations are published in the FederalRegister (FR) asking for public comment and identifying acontact at the Agency.

3) Once approved, final regulations are published in theFederal Register and incorporated into the Code ofFederal Regulations.

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50 Titles (for now)Printed versions are updated on a staggered basis with roughly

25% being revised each quarter.CFR - FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR

Coming soon: Title 51 (NATIONAL AND COMMERCIAL SPACEPROGRAMS)

Any use of the CFR should be carefully updated.LSA (List of Sections Affected) - FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=LSA

UA (Unified Agenda) - FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=GPO&browsePath=Unified+Agenda&isCollapsed=false&leafLevelBrowse=false&ycord=0

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*What is it?

*Administrative opinions can be found:

*Westlaw/Lexis – PAY

*The agency website - FREE

*LOC Administrative Law Guide – FREE -http://www.loc.gov/law/help/administrative.php

*Federal Courts:

The United States Supreme Court

U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal (13)

Federal District Courts

Specialized Federal Courts

(e.g. U.S. Ct. of International Trade;U.S. Tax Court; U.S. Court of FederalClaims)

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Taken from: http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/structure.shtml

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Judiciary

Path of appeals

Federal courts

Fed. District Court U.S. Court of Appeals U.S.Supreme Court

State courts

Trial level Intermediate Appellate State SupremeCourt U.S. Supreme Court

*Supreme Court – Equal Justice Under Law.

9 Justices

*Chief Justice John G. Roberts

*Associate Judges:

* Antonin Scalia

* Anthony Kennedy

* Clarence Thomas

* Samuel Anthony Alito Jr.

* Ruth Bader Ginsburg

* Stephen G. Breyer

* Sonia Sotomayor

* Elena Kagan

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Current awareness for the Supreme Court:Supreme Court - FREE

http://www.supremecourt.gov/

SCOTUSBlog - FREE

http://www.scotusblog.com/

Georgetown Law Library - FREE

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/library/research/guides/supreme_court.cfm

Cornell Legal Information Institute - FREE

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/home

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Federal Judicial Center - FREE

Judges of the United States – biographies of all judges who haveserved on US Federal courts since 1789.

http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/judges.html

Federal Judiciary Homepage - FREE

Everything you need to know about the Judiciary: links to courts,and the Federal Judicial Center, which provides information onjudges, links to their annual reports, caseload statistics, etc.

http://www.uscourts.gov/Home.aspx

Almanac of the Federal Judiciary - PAY

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Court Rules, Forms & Dockets Pathfinder - FREE

http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

Dockets

History of everything filed with a court in a particularcase

Docket Number

Usually some variation of year, civil or criminal,number of case

Pacer/Courtlink/West Dockets - PAY

*Case Citations

Bluebook

Reporters

A reference to a court’s opinion in a case that is published in a“Reporter.” Federal case law reporters published by West Groupinclude:

•SCt (Supreme Court Reporter)

•F3d (Federal Reporter, 3rd Series)

•FSupp (Federal Supplement)

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State cases are published in the West Regional ReporterSystem, including the following:

•A2d (Atlantic Reporter 2nd series)

•NW2d (Northwest Reporter 2nd series)

•NE2d (Northeast Reporter 2nd series)

•SE2d (Southeast Reporter 2nd series)

•SW2d (Southwest Reporter 2nd series)

•P2d (Pacific Reporter 2nd series)

Editorial Enhancements

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Title (parties’ names):

Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153 (1999)

Volume:

Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153 (1999)

Reporter:

Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153 (1999)

Page:

Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153 (1999)

Year:

Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153 (1999)

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A “parallel cite” is another place in a different reporter tofind the same case:

Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153, 42 Tex. Sup.Ct. J. 504

Westlaw & Lexis Citation Formats

1994 WL 123456 or 1997 US Lexis App 4543

A Pinpoint citation will direct you to a particular pagewithin a case: 997 S.W.2d 153, 155

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Updating Cases

Appeals

History/Treatment - There are many different historyterms that can be used:

•reversed; remanded; affirmed; overruled; many more. . .

*Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Lindsey, 997 S.W.2d 153, 42Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 504, Distinguished by MartinMarietta Materials v. St. Paul Guardian Ins., 145F.Supp 2d 794

•Updating Caselaw – Shepard’s or KeyCite

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*Finding Opinions: Westlaw, Lexis – PAY

*Published opinions; many unpublishedopinions

*VerdictSearch - www.verdictsearch.com - PAY

*Many cases settle before a judgewrites an opinion – between 60-80%

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HeinOnline (subscription service)http://home.heinonline.org/ - PAY

Offers full text PDFs of a long list of law reviewsand journals, along with a treaties library (UST andTIAS), US attorney general opinions, and US SupremeCourt opinions

Lexis, Westlaw, CCH, Bloomberg/BNA, Fastcase and Lois Law -PAY

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Treatise

Exhaustive work on topic area

Encyclopedias

Cover all areas of law - AmJur / CJS

American Law Reports - ALR

Ongoing collection of articles analyzingcaselaw for a particular subject

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Generally, the federal hierarchy is duplicated on the stateand municipal levels

List of State Codes -https://www.law.cornell.edu/statutes.html

Municipal codes/ordinances -https://www.municode.com/library/ - FREE and PAY

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Find a Lawyer:

Martindale-Hubbell - FREE

http://www.martindale.com/

FindLaw - FREE

http://lawyers.findlaw.com/

Firm or Organization website - FREE

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*Listservs

*When in doubt, call the Clerk of the Court

*Be willing to trade

*County Law Libraries

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Black’s Law Dictionary - PAY

http://west.thomson.com/productdetail/148307/40776543/productdetail.aspx

Federal Depository Libraries – FREE

http://www.gpo.gov/libraries/

Government Printing Office -http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/home.action - FREE

Law Library Research Xchange - http://www.llrx.com - FREE

Zimmerman’s Research Guide - FREE

http://law.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmermans/

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*What type of questions can a Law Librariananswer? Why is it illegal to answer case-specific questions?

*How do we stay current?

Abigail F. Ellsworth Ross

aross@rofinco.com

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For the chance to take home“Legal Research in a Nutshell fromWest:

1) The standard legal citation handbook is titled….

2) What daily government publication containsproposed regulations from federal agencies seekingpublic comments before final approval?

3) The official compilation of laws codified by subject iscalled?