Secondary swag
This secondary source is the most likely to be incorporated into law.
What are the Restatements?
This secondary source consists of books that provide a comprehensive discussion and explanation in a particular area of law
What are treatises?
How codes are organized.
What is by subject?
These 2 colors indicate positive treatment of a case.
What are green and blue?
This is West's digest system.
What are West key numbers?
This secondary source contains articles summarizing the law on almost every legal topic, with limited citations to primary authority.
What are legal encyclopedias?
What are LegalTrac, HeinOnline, Encore, Lexis and Westlaw?
These codes are published by the government.
What are official codes?
This is the most inefficient way to search for cases.
What is online text box searching?
The number of broad legal topics in the West Key Number System.
What is 414?
American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum are 2 examples of this secondary source.
What are legal encyclopedias?
This secondary source can be used to research common-law subjects.
What are Restatements?
The federal code in the United States.
What is the United States Code (U.S.C.)?
This color indicates that the case might have possible negative treatment.
What is yellow?
How you check that a statute is still good law on Westlaw and Lexis.
What are Keycite and Shephard’s?
This secondary source contains articles that provide an overview of the law and cite to primary authority. There is always a sample leading case on the topic.
What is ALR?
The number of Restatements.
What is 13?
The 3 finding aids for codes.
What are (1) table of contents, (2) index, and (3) popular name table
The 4 steps for researching cases/legal research:
(1) PLAN
(2) FIND authority
(3) Put in CONTEXT
(4) UPDATE authority
3 things that citators provide.
What are (1) case history, (2) case validity, and (3) citing references.
What is organized chronologically (ALR) vs. organized topically (legal encyclopedia)?
The 3 ways to search a treatise.
What are the subject index, table of contents, and word search
Before statutes are codified, they are published in these 2 forms.
What are (1) slip laws and (2) session laws?
4 ways to find cases.
What are (1) annotated codes, (2) jurisdiction-specific digests, (3) secondary courses like encyclopedias, ALRs, treatises, law review articles, or (4) “One Good Case” Method?
Besides key numbers, these are 2 other ways to find the "one good case."
What are (1) secondary source annotations and references (e.g. ALR) and (2) statutory annotations?