Computer Assisted Legal Research Spring 2015 Week 1

Agenda Greensheet review Classroom Rules Assignments— –Supplemental reading assignments—check web site: –writing assignments given in class Introduction to CALR

Computer Assisted Legal Research Two Aspects: –Computer Assisted Basic Computer skills and knowledge Understanding limits and problems of CALR –Legal Research Finding law Reading law Analyzing law

Class Focus Finding law on “free” Internet (mostly primary) Finding all law on Westlaw—a subscription based service –Using various features on Westlaw Finding law by citation, by topic, and by hypothetical situation

Legal Research A Primer

Legal Research Goal is to find primary law that controls a factual situation Research materials include primary sources of law and secondary sources of law Secondary sources—help us find and understand the primary sources

LAWS and GOVERNMENT Laws originate with some branch of government (all of whom have websites that provide access to law) LEGISLATIVE—Statutory (Codes) JUDICIAL—Case law EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES –Regulations

Federal and State Different laws exist for federal and state governments In California we are concerned with federal law and California law General types of law are same

Primary Sources Constitutions Statutes Case Law Ordinances Administrative Regs

Primary law Public documents—because government created No copyright protection in the law Primary law found widely on the Internet

Chapter 4: Finding and Using the Law Secondary Sources Dictionaries Encyclopedias Form Books Practice books Periodicals Treatises Digests

Secondary Sources Usually Privately published Copyright protections

Chapter 4: Finding and Using the Law Federal Case Law ( In Print ) United States Reports (U.S.*) Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.) Lawyer’s Edition (L.Ed.) * Reporter abbreviation used on Internet! Federal Reports (F.) Federal Supplement (F.Supp.) Specialty Reporters

Computer Assisted Legal Research CALR

What you find on the Internet Law: Cases, codes, admin. regs., constitutions, local ordinances, constitutions Public Records: Court Docs., Patents, Corporate Info, Real Estate Ownership; Personal information; Legal News

Internet and Citations Primary Law retains print citations –Volumes, pages, names A Note on Citations: “Bluebook” : “California Style Manual”

Types of sites Government==public documents (.gov) Education==usually for benefit of students (.edu) “Free” sites ==purpose? (.com) Fee-based sites—Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg (.com)

Evaluating Sites Reliability of provider Date Supplements

The Internet and The Browser Internet: worldwide group of public and private computers linked together in a network to share information World Wide Web (WWW) –collection of electronically linked files (web pages) stored on millions of computers Browser—allows you to access web

Browsers I.E. Chrome Firefox General Features that help with CALR –Favorites and bookmarks Folders –History –Print –Edit and Find Feature

Search Engines & Directories Search Engine—i.e. Google, Bing –Do NOT search the entire Web –Search “Indexes” Directories (often Portals) –Creator of Web site limits available documents

Google California Assumption of Risk Doctrine

Bing

A Note On Wikipedia Does not purport to be “accurate” Use wisely—always check primary law (usually found in footnotes.)

Lexis Academic—DeAnza Available through DeAnza Library Site (available off campus with student I.D.) Contains limited Lexis materials Cases with headnotes and summaries Annotated codes Am. Jur Explore the site: –Video Tutorials—Introduction –Research Guides—User Guides--

Lexis Academic Home Page: Browse (list of publications) Look up a legal case If you have a citation or a case name Topic—not a good choice Search by Content Type Select source under Legal (cases, statutes etc.)

Searching Codes Federal—USCS (United States Code Service) –Citation: 18 U.S.C.S. § 242 State—Find CA Penal Code 211 –Content Type—State Statutes and Regs –Advanced Search = California Select States—Statutory Code --California –Segments –Browse (Click on California) Find “California law dealing with “equitable adoption”

Segments SEGMENT-DESCRIP: CASENOTES contains the notes of decisions. casenotes (inva! w/5 privacy) CITE contains the citation for a document. cite (50 uscs and 462) HEADINGcontains the number and name of the topic under which a document has been organized. heading (privacy) HISTORYcontains the history of a document. history (1994 amendment) NOTEScontains all notes pertaining to a document. notes (privacy w/5 freedom of information) SECTIONcontains the number and caption of a document. section (privacy) STATUScontains information regarding the currentness of the code section status (104-12) TEXTcontains the text of a document. text (inva! w/5 privacy) UNANNOsearches, displays and prints a document without annotations unanno (1994 amendments)

Explore Added Features Cites (and links) to secondary sources Notes of decisions

Let’s try some general case searching Go to Lexis Academic: You are looking for 653 F. 2d CA 403 Estate of Grace (California Appellate Court case) 37 Cal. 2d 174 See v. See (A California community property case

General Case Searching You are searching for a Supreme Court case in which someone challenged the Pledge of Allegiance in school because it contains the words “under God” –Natural Language: –Boolean Search (Advanced Search): You are looking for California cases dealing with equitable adoption.

Case Law Searching Citation –542 U.S. 1 Parties –Elk Grove

American Jurisprudence Equitable adoption –Then focus to California

Practice 42 usc 1983 California Penal Code § 187 Topic: Can a person put an advertisement on the U.S. Flag? (find a code)

Law Reviews Advanced Search—All Law Reviews for list Search for a Santa Clara Law School article involving the Internet published after August 2014

Encyclopedia—Am. Jur. X married his cousin but believed that the marriage was void. After separating from his cousin, X later married Y without obtaining a divorce from his firs wife. Is X guilty of bigamy? Cite the controlling case.

Research Process (books) Process: –Know what question you are asked to answer –Create a vocabulary list of key terms (use dictionary or thesaurus) –Formulate the issue –Decide what sources you will search –Take key terms to indexes (of secondary sources or codes) or to tables of contents –Familiarize yourself with area of law –Go to primary sources (cases, codes etc.)

Research Process—Computer Assited Subscription based vs. Freely accessible Subscription sites (i.e. Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law) are online law libraries –Process of research is often similar to book research –Several helpful and additional features –Full-text searching Use of indexes/secondary sources not always required, but often recommended –Modern trend is to also offer “google” types of searching.

Get a headstart with WestlawNext Westlawnext.com Link to Support Link to WestlawNext Scroll down to Video Tutorials and User Guides