Basic Legal Research

Maryville University Library

Gail Keutzer

Legal Publishing

Primary Sources

Actual form of the law

Examples:• United States Code• Missouri Revised

Statutes• United States Reports

Secondary Sources

Lead to and/or explain primary sources

Examples:• Encyclopedias • Law Reviews• Annotated Codes

Legal Publishing

Main publishers:

Government (federal and state)

West (main private publishers)

Other (Lexis/Nexis, law schools, etc.)

Sources of Law

1. Constitution (supreme law)

2. Case Law (from courts)

3. Statutory Law (from legislature)

4. Regulatory Law (from agencies)

Case Law

Cases are published in Reporters

Examples:

1. US Reports (Supreme Court)

2. Federal Reporter (Appeals Courts)

3. Federal Supplement (District Courts)

4. Southwestern Reporter (State cases)

Case Law

Cases are arranged and referred to by citations

book date

Katz v. United States 389 US 347 1967 name of case volume page

Case Law

Parallel Citations: When the same case is reported in two different sources.

Harriman v. Louisiana

476 U.S. 1109 (U.S. Reports)

106 S. Ct. 1958 (Supreme Court Reporter)

90 L. Ed. 366 (Lawyer’s Edition)

Case Law

United States Reports

• Published by US Government

• Publishing cycle:

slip opinions=>preliminary prints=>final

Case Law

Southwestern Reporter

• Published by West

• Includes cases reported for geographic region

• Maryville has Missouri cases only

Case Law

West’s Key Number System

• Assigns numbers to topics of law

• Used throughout reporter and digest system for cross referencing

• Designated by a key symbol

Case Law

Ways to find cases

• Use citations (easiest)

• Use list of cases reported (in reporter)

• Use secondary sources– Digests (ex: West’s Missouri Digest)– Encyclopedias (ex: American Jurisprudence)– Other references (ex: treatises, law reviews,

annotations and footnotes)

Case Law

West’s Missouri Digest

• Indexes Missouri cases by topic

• Useful finding aids– Descriptive index volumes– Table of cases– Words and Phrases index– Pocket Parts– Supplementary pamphlet

Case Law

Encyclopedias

• Corpus Juris Secundum (an alphabetical arrangement of some four hundred broad legal topics)

• American Jurisprudence (includes state and federal laws arranged by broad topics)

Statutory Law

Laws are published in codes

Examples:

• United States Code

• Missouri Revised Statutes

• United States Code Annotated

Statutory Law

United States Code• Contains the laws of the United States

arranged in titles and sections• Publication cycle: slip laws=>

Statutes at Large=>final U.S. Code• Citation formats:

– 22 USC 7101 (Code)– 117 STAT. 2875 (Statutes at Large)– P.L. 108-193 (Slip law)

Statutory Law

United States Code Annotated

• West publication

• Arranged in titles and sections to correspond to United States Code

• Adds explanatory notes and references

Statutory Law

Missouri Statutory Sources

• Revised Missouri Statutes (official)

• Vernon’s Annotated Missouri Statutes (West)

• Missouri Session Laws (compiled each legislature)

Shepards

• Use to determine “good law”

• For given case or law, gives later cases or laws that have cited it

• Indicates how later references have treated the case (i.e. affirmed, dissented, etc.)