Researching the Law from the Newsroom

SLA 2004 Annual Conference

June 9, 2004

Biographical Sources

• Martindale-Hubbell– With a history spanning more than 133 years, the

Martindale-Hubbell Legal Network is currently powered by a database of over one million lawyers and law firms in 160 countries.

Biographical Sources

• West’s Legal Directory: http://lawyers.findlaw.com

Biographical Resources

• Federal Judicial Center: http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf

– The Federal Judges Biographical Database provides information about all judges who have served on the U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Supreme Court and other life-tenured courts since 1789.

Legal AuthoritiesPrimary: legal material issued directly from any branch of

governmentExamples: statutes, regulations, decisions, court rules

Secondary: Contains commentary on primary authority (and maybe also the text of the primary authority, in full or in part)Examples: legal encyclopedias, treatises, law reviews

Mandatory: an authority that must be followed in your court absent cogent public policy reasons

Persuasive: an authority that need not be followed in your court

The Courts

• Federal CourtsU.S Supreme

Court

Appellate Courts

12 circuits organized by

region

Court of Appeals for

the Federal Circuit

Trial Courts94 Federal districts,

including a bankruptcy court

U.S. Court of Federal Claims

Court of International

Trade

The Courts – Some Statistics*

US Courts of Appeals56,534 cases filed in 2002 (+.8% over 2001)39,536 cases pending at the end of 2002 (-2.6% from 2001)

US District Courts – Civil Cases265,091 cases filed in 2002 (+4.2% over 2001)265,321 cases pending at the end of 2002 (+6.5% over 2001)

US District Courts – Criminal Cases63,515 cases filed in 2002 (+.1% over 2001)52,713 cases pending at the end of 2002 (+9.7% over 2001)

*http://www.uscourts.gov/library/statisticsalreports.html

Court Documents: Why Do You Need Them?

• Only 3.2% of federal civil cases make it to trial completion

• Only 11% of federal criminal cases make it to trial completion

Court Documents

• PACER: http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/

– Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index.

Court Documents

• U.S. Party/Case Index (on PACER)– The U.S. Party/Case Index is a national index for U.S.

district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts. A small subset of information from each case is transferred to the U.S. Party/Case Index server each night located in San Antonio, Texas at the PACER Service Center. The system serves as a locator index for PACER. You may conduct nationwide searches to determine whether or not a party is involved in federal litigation.

Court Documents – Other Resources

• Courtlink: http://courtlink.lexisnexis.com

• Mealey’s: http://www.mealeys.com/

• CourtExpress: http://www.courtexpress.com/

Caselaw

Case Reporting - Federal

• Supreme Court: US Reports, L.Ed.2d, S. Ct.

• Courts of Appeals (Circuit courts): Federal Reporter (F., F2d, F3d)

• Trial Courts (District Courts): Federal Supplement (F. Supp.)

Caselaw

• Reading citations

• Citation Information (Bluebooking)http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

McNeil v. Economics Laboratory, Inc., 800 F.2d 111, (7th Cir. Ill. 1986)

Party names Volume #

Reporter abbreviation

Page # Court Date

Caselaw – US Supreme Court

• Versions of opinions:– Bench Opinions. On days that opinions are announced by the Court

from the bench, the text of each opinion is made available immediately

to the public and the press in a printed form called a "bench opinion." – Slip Opinions. Several days after an opinion is announced by the

Court, it is printed in a 6" x 9" self-cover pamphlet called a "slip opinion." – Preliminary Prints. These are brown, soft-cover "advance pamphlets"

that contain, in addition to the opinions themselves, all of the announcements, tables, indexes, and other features that make up the U. S. Reports.

– Bound Volumes. The opinions and other materials contained in the preliminary prints are published in this series of books. Prior to publication, all of the opinions and other materials that make up each volume undergo a final editing and indexing process.

Caselaw – Where to Find ItUS Supreme Court:Official Slip Opinions: http://www.supremecourtus.govLegal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.eduLexisONE: http://www.lexisone.com/ (Click on “Find Cases for Free”)

US Circuit Courts:Office of US Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.htmlFederal Courts Finder: http://law.emory.edu/caselaw/

US District Courts:Office of US Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.htmlLegal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/federal/districts.html

Caselaw – Where to Find ItRegional Legal News Sources:

American Lawyer Media publications:

http://www.lawcatalog.com/ (see Newspapers)

Lawyers Weekly publications:

http://www.lawyersweekly.com/

Caselaw - Unreported• Unreported decisions are judicial opinions that have not

been published in any official or near-official case reporter. They are also called "unpublished decisions," "unreported opinions" and "unpublished opinions.“

• Federal unreported decisions may be found on Lexis and Westlaw.

• Unreported decisions from state cases may be found in a local/regional legal newspaper or on Lexis or Westlaw.

• Opinions can also be retrieved from the relevant court.

Shepardizing

• Determine the current status of a case, statute, or other legal authority

• Find statute annotations and law review articles that have cited your case

Criminal Information

• Corrections Connection: http://www.corrections.com/links/viewlinks.asp?Cat=30

• The Virtual Chase: Criminal Records http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/criminal_records.html

Government MaterialsBranch of Government Work Product

Executive Executive Orders; Proclamations

Legislative Session laws; statutes; legislative histories

Judicial Court decisions

Administrative Regulations; administrative decisions; rules

Legislative Research

• THOMAS: http://thomas.loc.gov/

– Acting under the directive of the leadership of the 104th Congress to make Federal legislative information freely available to the Internet public, a Library of Congress team brought the THOMAS World Wide Web system online in January 1995, at the inception of the 104th Congress.

Need Answers?• Zimmerman’s Guide:

http://www.lexisone.com/zimmermanguide/index.html– An online legal encyclopedia providing definitions, examples,

explanations and useful links

• The Virtual Chase How-To Guides: http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/how_to_guides.html– An annotated guide to sources of information on various types of

legal research

• Public Law Libraries: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/sccll/– AALL State, Court and County Libraries SIS

Researching the Law from the Newsroom

SLA 2004 Annual Conference

June 9, 2004