COURT STRUCTURE
The court were cases are heard for the first time
What is a trial court
The legal question that needs to be researched and resolved
What is the issue
Westlaw utilizes this to perform all research tasks
What is a search box
Secondary sources help to direct you to this
What are the primary sources of law
4 Am. Jur. 2d Annulment of Marriage § 2
What is American Jurisprudence 2d
The court where decisions of the trial court are reviewed for legal errors
What is an appellate court
The 2 most comprehensive online legal databases
What are Westlaw and Lexis
Westlaw utilizes this to determine if your case, statute, administrative decision or regulation is still good law
What is KeyCite
This secondary source is helpful in providing examples and illustrations of how the law is applied
What are the Restatements of Law
32 A.L.R. Fed. 3d Art. 8 (Originally published in 2018)
What are the American Law Reports
The highest federal court and the highest court in the country
What is the United States Supreme Court (USSC)
It is important to have all of these before beginning your legal research
What are facts
Master classification system of U.S. law that allows you to conduct a comprehensive search of published opinions of law touching on your legal issue
What is the West Key Number System
These secondary sources are helpful when needing extensive and deep detail on a particular subject
What are treatises and loose-leaf services
Restatement (First) of Contracts § 19 (1932)
What are the Restatements of Law
The United States Courts of Appeals are divided into how many circuits across the county
What is 12
Word search that uses various terms and connectors
What is Boolean search
Westlaw saves your search history for this long, making it easy to return to prior research
What is 1 year
The 2 search methods to use when using legal encyclopedias
What are the index method and topic method
16A Ill. Law and Prac. Easements § 1(2019)
What is Illinois Law and Practice (state encyclopedia)
Federal jurisdiction can be achieved through these 3 ways
What is federal question, federal issue and federal diversity
The 5 components of legal research
What is formulating the issue, deciding which method of research to use, using either citation or word search strategy, properly citing your authority and validating your findings
Annotations that summarize important cases that have interpreted a statute or regulation, giving you a more complete picture of how the law has been applied
What are Notes of Decision
This is Illinois's published legal encyclopedia
What is Illinois Law and Practice
91 Nw. U. L. Rev. 636 (1997)
What is Northwester University Law Review (law review)