citators, court reporters, digests, and publication
Statuuuuutes
A lil' Bit of Everything
100
The type of authority that a court must follow. It also sometimes depend on where the court is located.
What is mandatory authority?
100
-Index Method
-Topic Outline Method (searching the table of contents)
What is the two most common ways to search (most) secondary sources?
100
How do you find a case in a digest? Name several ways.
a. Use a headnote from an on-point case in a West Reporter and use its Topic/Key Number to find more cases in a digest
b. Use Topic/Key Number in secondary source
c. Look in digest’s Descriptive Word Index
d. Look up a known topic in the topic-outline to find exact legal issue
e. Check Words & Phrases for judicial definitions
f. Check pocket parts!
100
Method using a Citation, the Descriptive word index (DWI), a Title-outline, or Tables (found at end of volume) such as the Popular name (eg. Patriot act) or Conversion
What is how to search for a code?
100
It collects all citations from the published law that refers to a case and analyzes/arranges them into tables
What is a citator?
200
Includes the four sources of law and the analysis or commentary on the law.
What is primary authority and secondary authority?
200
There are two main types of this secondary source; their names are the American Jurisprudence and Corpus Jurisprudence Secondum. The topics are arranged alphabetically and each topic provides a broad overview of the law and may include an annotation with leading cases or references to other secondary sources.
What is a legal encyclopedia?
200
There is a headnote for each black-letter law issue in the case which are assigned to a topic and key number. These key notes can be looked up in one these, and you may be lead to more sources.
What is a digest?
200
The three places to find the code in print.
What are
Official: U.S. Code (USC)
Lexis: U.S. Code Service (USCS)
West: U.S. Code Annotated (USCA)
200
The three main citators.
What are
a. Lexis: Shepards print
b. Lexis: Shepards online
c. West: KeyCite
300
A legal authority binding a court to its own decisions.
What is stare decisis?
300
What are the two ways to search for key terms?
1. You can use the Index method and search for your terms by using the general index located at the end of each set.
2. You can use the Topic-outline (table of contents) method if you are already familiar with the topic.
300
Kentucky’s reporters before 1951 and after 1951
What are: Before 1951: Kentucky Reports ; After 1951: South Western Reporter
300
How are KY statutes codified?
What is:
a. Divided into 44 titles
b. Titles divided into chapters
c. Chapters are divided into sections (Cite: 159.010)
300
Describe the structure of the federal court system.
The First level is the United States District Court. These are trial courts of federal issues. If there is a federal issues raised then it would be brought in a federal district court. (KY has 2!)
The second level is the United States Court of Appeals. These are divided into circuits there are 13 total with 11 numbered circuits and the DC circuit and Federal Circuit. This court hears case that have been appealed at the federal level.
The United States Supreme Court is the 3rd level. It is a court of last resort. This court has discretionary review. In order to be before the Supreme Court of the United States the person appealing must apply for a writ of certiorari.
400
Authority which does not have to be followed by a court.
What is a persuasive authority?
400
All of the secondary sources.
What are: Legal Dictionaries, Legal thesauruses, Legal Encyclopedias, Legal Periodicals, Treatises/Hornbooks, Restatements, American Law Reports, Uniform Law and Model Acts
400
the anatomy of a case in a reporter
What are:
a. Case body text
b. Case name
c. Attorney name
d. Syllabus
e. Headnotes
f. Opinions
g. Procedural details
i. Docket number
ii. Court
iii. Date
400
a. Annotations
b. State constitution
c. State rules
d. Main index volumes
e. Topic-outlines
f. Updates
What is the anatomy of the KRS?
400
The Constitution, Statutory Law, Common Law, and
Administrative Regulations
What are the four sources of law?
500
Two types of authority which may be:
1. legal theory that has been established in law but in a different jurisdiction or sister court.
2. legal theory that is based on the ideas of a legal scholar.
What are the two types of persuasive authority? (Primary and Secondary Persuasive)
500
Getting a broad view of that area of law; finding leading cases and statutes on a particular topic; getting practice pointers and forms; discovering legal theories to persuade the court.
What are the general uses for a secondary source?
500
a. South Eastern
b. South Western-TX, TN, MO, AR, KY (TTMAK)
c. North Eastern
d. North Western
e. Atlantic
f. Pacific
g. Southern
What is a regional reporter?
500
What is an administrative regulation and who writes it?
a. Law created by an executive agency on the direction of the legislature through an enabling act
b. Regulations are written by experts who can scientifically and measurably define conditions in the law
500
Differences between a headnote, citation, and docket number.
What are:
• Headnotes are brief summaries of the points of law that helps a reader to quickly recognize the legal issues at hand in a case.
• A docket number is the numerical designation assigned to each case by a court
• A citation gives the case name and the location of the case in a reporter or multiple reporters.
Example: Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).