Introduction to Legal Research &
FSU Law Library Services
Presented by Robin R. Gault,
Associate Director of the Law Library
Presentation Originally Created by Faye Jones,
Professor & Director of the Law Library
Reference Desk: 850-644-4095
Evening Service: The Hotline (Red Phone) at Reference
Legal Research: A Fundamental Skill
• The MacCrate Report, ABA Section of Legal Education &
Admissions to the Bar, Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the
Profession: Narrowing the Gap v, 145 (Robert MacCrate ed. (1992).
• Fundamental Skill # 3: “In order to conduct
legal research effectively, a lawyer should
have a working knowledge of the nature of
legal rules and legal institutions, the
fundamental tools of legal research, and the
process of devising and implementing a
coherent and effective research design . . . .”
Legal Research: A Fundamental Skill
• An attorney’s failure to research a client’s case
properly can result in a malpractice award
against the attorney (Hickox v. Holleman, 502
So. 2d 626 (Miss. 1987)), a public rebuke by
the court (Massey v. Prince George’s County,
918 F. Supp. 905 (D. Md., 1996)), or even
suspension (Attorney Grievance Comm’n v.
Zdravkovich, 762 A.2d 950 (Md. Ct. App.,
2000)).
Legal Research: A Fundamental Skill
• Legal research must be
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Correct
Comprehensive
Credible
Cost-effective
A Legal Researcher’s Goals
• Find correct resources to rely upon
• The law that governs the facts in your case and
which was in effect at the time the facts occurred
• Be comprehensive
• Mandatory primary authority, persuasive primary
authority, useful secondary authority
• Be credible
• Find the strongest authority to rely upon
• Be cost-effective
• Practice, practice, practice
• Caveat: Ask for help before frustration sets in…
Legal Research: The Basics
• Primary Authority
• IS the law
• Cases, Statutes, Constitutions, Regulations, Rules
• Secondary Authority
• Analysis and commentary
• Usually the best place to begin research
• Treatises, Practice materials, Periodicals, American Law
Reports & much more
• Finding Tools
• Digests, Citators, and other techniques
• Updating Tools
• Lexis/Nexis Shepard’s Citators and Westlaw Keycite
Work From A Research Plan
• Identify research terms
• Study the facts, read all available documents, and
develop vocabulary before beginning to research
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Assess the formats available: print or online?
Keep a journal as you work
Find, read, and update secondary sources
Develop issues for primary research
• Hint: It helps to write out the issues
• Find, read, and update primary authority
• Include nonlegal materials as appropriate
Primary Sources: Cases
• Courts: explain the dispute, the outcome,
and their reasoning
• Resolve only this dispute, but
• Set precedent for the future
• Courts are reactive, not proactive.
• Typical court structure:
• Trial
• Appellate (Intermediate)
• Highest
Parts of a Case
• Caption: names of parties in the case
• Docket Number: court-assigned tracking number
• Citation: publication location
• Subsequent publications
• 34 F. 211; 34 F.2d 211; 34 F.3d 211
• Parallel Citations
• 55 U.S. 193, 14 How. 193, 14 L. Ed. 383, 1852 U.S. LEXIS 435
(1853)
• Attorneys: names of counsel appearing for each
of the parties in the case
• Judges: which judges wrote the majority opinion
and any dissenting or concurring opinions
• Opinion: the actual decision of the judge
Federal Courts
Federal Case Reporters
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Reports
• Supreme Court
Reporter
• Lawyer’s Edition
• U.S. Courts of
Appeals
• Federal Reporter
• U.S. District Courts
• Federal Supplement
Regional Reporter System
Examples of Regional and Specialty
Reporters
Florida Courts
• Florida Supreme Court
• http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/
• 5 District Courts of Appeal
• http://www.flcourts.org/courts/dca/dca.shtml
• 20 Circuit Courts
• Both trial and appellate courts
• http://www.flcourts.org/courts/circuit/circuit.shtml
• 67 County Courts
• http://www.flcourts.org/courts/county/county.shtml
Florida Case Reporters
• Southern Reporter
• Regional reporter that includes Florida
• Florida Cases
• A subset of Southern Reporter that contains only Florida cases
• Florida Law Weekly
• New Florida appellate court decisions
• Florida Law Weekly Federal
• New decisions of federal courts sitting in Florida, 11th Circuit
and U.S. Supreme Court
• Florida Law Weekly Supplement
• New selected county and circuit court decisions
• http://www.floridalawweekly.com
Finding Tools
• Digests
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Comprehensive topical indexes
Decennial Digest
General Digest
West’s Florida Digest & Florida Digest 2d
• Citators
• Using primary or secondary sources
• “One good case”
• “Mining the footnotes”
Is there a typical path for doing case
research?
• Three questions:
• Where to begin?
• How to proceed?
• When to stop?
• What is accessible/most useful?
• Online resources vs. print resources
Primary Sources: Federal Statutes &
Constitution
• Government Printing Office (Official)
• Public Laws (slip laws)
• Statutes at Large (session laws)
• United States Code (Reorganized into 50
topics)
• Commercial Publishers (Unofficial)
• United States Code Annotated (West)
• United States Code Service (Lexis)
Primary Sources: Florida Statutes &
Constitution
• Official
• Laws of Florida (session laws)
• Florida Statutes
• Unofficial
• Florida Statutes Annotated (West)
• Florida Annotated Statutes (Lexis)
Primary Sources: Regulations
“Delegated Legislation”
• Federal
• Code of Federal Regulation
• Federal Register
• Administrative agency publications
• Florida
• Florida Administrative Code Annotated
• Florida Administrative Weekly
• Florida Administrative Law Reports
Rules of Procedure and Ethics
• Rules of courts
• Federal, state, and local
• Rules of Professional Conduct
• Rules Regulating the Florida Bar
• American Bar Association Model Rules
• Codes of Judicial Conduct
• Ethics opinions
• The Florida Bar
Updating Tools
• Currency is the lifeblood of the law!
• Shepard’s
• Print
• Lexis
• Keycite (Westlaw)
• Hint: Learn both systems!
Secondary Sources
• Treatises
• Practice materials
• Periodicals & Indexes
• Index to Legal Periodicals & Books
• LegalTrac
• American Law Reports
• Encyclopedias
Research Instruction by Law Librarians
• Librarians teaching legal research
• In classes: Advanced Legal Research, International
Legal Research, Environmental Law Research.
• In research workshops & Jump Starts.
• In the Library
• Ask for help from the reference librarians
• Margaret Clark is the librarian liaison for 1Ls
FSU Law Library
• Guides to resources
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Online catalog (print and electronic resources)
Law Library databases
FSU Databases
E-journals
Other online sources
Research guides
Research Workshop schedule
• Services
• Staff
• Hours
Law Library Services for Law Students
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Individual research assistance
Research instruction
CALI
Past exams
Course reserve materials
Interlibrary loan
Wireless access
Printing/photocopying
Creation of unique research databases
Other Libraries
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Main Library (Strozier)
Information Studies
Medical
Music
Science (Dirac)
Regional/National Library Catalogs
Research & The End Game
• American Bar Association Career Guides
• http://www.abanet.org/publiced/legalcareers.html
• FindLaw, http://careers.findlaw.com/
• The Florida Bar
http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/PI/CertSect.nsf/Sections?Op
enForm
http://www.flabuslaw.org/
• Professional Organizations
• AIPLA, http://www.aipla.org/
• Armed Forces
• http://www.navy.com/officer/legal;
http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=318;
http://www.marines.com/officer_programs/chooseyourplace.asp?format
=flash;
http://www.airforce.com/careers/job.php?catg_id=1&sub_catg_id=3&af_
job_id=179; http://www.gocoastguard.com/dc/dcprograms/dcl.htm
• FSU J.D./M.S. joint degree in law librarianship
http://www.ci.fsu.edu/Prospects/Grads/ssd98_JurisDrMS_degree_d
esc.cfm
JUST ASK!