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No.1 Reason to do legal research "the right way"(according to bob berring)
TIME
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3 Basic Prinsiples (according to bob berring)
- 1. Understand Information
- 2. Understand Research System
- 3. Use Context -its crucial, waht are the subjects, buzzwords?
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What are the different forms of Judcial Reports? (according to bob berring)
Cases/Decisions
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When looking at Cases/Decisions, what must you take into consideration?
- 1.Opinions
- 2.Holding v. Dicta
- 3. See Opinions as "universe of information"
- 4. Reading must be done carefully.
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What are OPINIONS?
They are advocacy documents (a judge's opinion); are rethorical devices.
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Judicial Opinions Deal with why type of Issues?
Issues of Law
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Three Part Court System
- 1. trial court (Federal level: District Court)
- 2. Appellate Court
- 3. Court of last resort (usually supreme court)
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Trial Court
- Trial Court (state level)
- District Court (federal level)
- -resolve issues of Fact as well as Issues of Law
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Appellate Court
- Only Issues of Law
- 3 judges make decision.
- There are 13 Federal Appellate Courts (U.S. Courts of Appeals) broken down into CIRCUITS (1-11 AND Federal circuit and District of Columbia Circuit)
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Court of Last Resort (Supreme Court)
- Usually discritionary Jurisdiction.
- Nine Justices (appointed by president & confirmed by U.S Senate)
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Discritionary Jurisdiction
- Discretion to consider many issues. AKA Certiorari.
- may hear disputes between two states.
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What will you see in a Opinion?
- Tags
- Links
- Citators
- the MEAT of the case
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Tags
- ways to identify opinions
- -Parties
- -Pocket #
- -Citation
- -Spoilers
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Pocket #
#internal #used by courts to keep files organized
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Citation
To serve as reference to locate orginal document cited
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Spoilers
- -Syllabus/summary (any part of a opinion that can quckly help you understand the case)
- -Headnotes (abstract of every legal issue in a case; cannot cite them)
- -Editorial Headnotes ( research systems, topic and key numbers system)
- -Lexis System ( core words)
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Citators
- -Keysite(direct history of case;find out who has been discussed/quoted; every decision where your case has been noted)
- -Shepards (direct history divided between "Distinguished, followed)
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Links
"The cycle of a case" graphic representation of the history of a case
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The MEAT
opinion (concurring or dissenting, per curiam (no specific judge writes;all write) or denial to hear)
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Modern Research Systems
- -Westlaw
- -Lexis
- -Volunteers
- --find law
- --legal information institute
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ways to find cases
- -Use Research Systems (have context; useful tools such as topic and key # system)
- -Boolean Searching (not good, no context)
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