Sources of Law
Name the three branches of government.
Legislative, Executive (which contains the Administrative), and Judicial
In what circumstances are secondary sources binding?
None, never
Name the steps in the legal research process
Research plan > secondary sources > primary law > updating
Give examples of terms and connectors and describe what they do.
AND - both terms
OR - either term
NOT - exclude term
/s - same sentence
/p - same paragraph
" " - exact phrases
() - search first and group together
* - replace character to allow variants
! - truncate word to allow for any ending
Name the court of last resort at the federal level.
Supreme Court
What type of law does the judicial branch produce?
Cases
Explain the difference between primary and secondary authority.
Primary = the law; Secondary = about the law
What are some examples of finding aids?
Index, Table of Contents, Table of Authorities
How do you know when to stop researching?
When you're seeing the same sources over and over; sometimes deadline forces your hand
What are the federal trial courts called?
District Courts
From which branch of government do statutes originate?
Legislative
Is primary authority always binding? Why or why not?
No - it could be from a jurisdiction that a court isn't obligated to follow, but it's still primary/the law.
What are some pieces of information you should note for your research plan?
Jurisdiction, issue statement, relevant facts, search term ideas, potential secondary sources, deadline
Give a method for determining good keywords for your search.
Who, what, when, where, why, how
Parties, places, claims, defenses, relief
Name the intermediate court at the federal level.
Courts of Appeals
Name the head of the executive branch at the state and federal levels.
The governor (state) and the President (federal)
Name the courts which a U.S. district court are obligated to follow.
The appellate courts in the circuit within which it resides and the Supreme Court.
What's the difference between known-item searching and subject-searching?
Known-item: searching for something you know or have previously seen but can't remember all the details
Subject: researching a general subject
You conduct your search and get thousands of results. How would you improve it?
Make it more precise - define relationships better or differently using AND, proximity connectors, exact phrase
How are the intermediate appellate courts arranged at the federal level?
In circuits made up of multiple states
What is the difference between session laws and the United States Code?
Session laws are arranged chronologically, while the United States Code is arranged by subject
Name the state-level courts that a California trial court is obligated to follow.
Any California appellate court in any district - not just the one it resides in - and the California Supreme Court.
What's the difference between source-driven and content-driven searching?
Source-driven – relies on where the information is or the source who created it; pre-filter by jurisdiction or type of authority before choosing resource
Content-driven -
Source-driven – relies on where the information is or the source who created it; pre-filter by jurisdiction or type of authority before choosing resource
Content-driven – relies on what the information is about; search for concepts/terms and filter afterwards by jdx or type of authority
Analysis portion is flipped and doesn’t always give the same result
You conduct a search and get zero results. How would you alter the search?
Make it more broad - add synonyms, use OR, define relationships between terms less strictly
What's a natural language search?
Asking the search engine a question in "natural language," which the model can analyze for context and search for the answer even if it doesn't use your exact search terms