Finding the Law: Cases, Statutes, and Regulations

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Finding the LawCases, Statutes, and Regulations

• Ann Hemmens
• University of Washington Gallagher Law Library
• September 13, 2007
• http//lib.law.washington.edu/ref/basiclegalresear
  chTLInstitute.ppt

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Presentation available online

• http//lib.law.washington.edu/ref/basiclegalresear
  chTLInstitute.ppt

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Goals

• Basic introduction to U.S. legal research
• Basic introduction to U.S. legal citation format
• Tour of Gallagher Law Library

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Primary Secondary Authority

• Primary
• Statement of "the law" from bodies with
  law-making authority
• Secondary
• Explain, interpret, and help you locate the
  primary law
• Includes Treatises, Hornbooks, law review
  articles, legal encyclopedias, Restatements,
  Nutshells etc.

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Organization of Federal State Governments
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How do Sources of Law Interact?

• Court interprets a statute
• An earlier court decision is overruled by same
  court
• Statute held unconstitutional by a court
• Legislature writes statute in response to a case
• Agency proposed rules in response to statute.

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Issues in Legal Research

• What type of law might govern your question?
• statutes? regulations? cases?
• Which jurisdiction?
• federal or state or both?
• Did you update your research?

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Court Structure Federal State
Federal State
Court of Last Resort U.S. Supreme Court WA Supreme Court
Intermediate Appellate Court ? Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Circuit map WA Court of Appeals
Trial Court ? U.S. District Court for Western District of WA King County Superior Court
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U.S. Legal Citation Format

• The Bluebook A Uniform System of Citation (KF245
  .U5 2005 18th ed. in Reference Area)
• Going Beyond Casebooks Exercise,
• http//lib.law.washington.edu/ref/beyondcase.htm

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Legal Citation format for CASES

• Pate v. Threlkel, 661 So.2d 278 (Fla. 1995)
• Party 1 v. Party 2, volume number reporter
  name page number (jurisdiction sometimes
  year).

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Tools for finding cases on particular subjects

• Digests
• Index to National Reporter System. Find federal
  and state cases by legal issue or subject. Topic
  and Key Numbers. Examples Federal Practice
  Digest, Pacific Digest.
• American Law Reports (ALR) and law review
  articles (secondary sources)
• Provide in-depth analysis of legal topic or case.
• Examples
• Marjorie A. Shields, Annotation, Liability for
  Conversion and Misappropriation of Genetic
  Material, 121 A.L.R.5th 315 (2004).
• Edward J. Janger, 3 Genetic Information, Privacy
  and Insolvency, 3 J.L. Med. Ethics 79 (2005).
• Lexis Nexis Academic (from UW Libraries LAW
  webpage)

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(No Transcript)
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Lexis Nexis Academic

• Available from UW Libraries LAW Subject webpage
• http//www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Law/
• Cases, statutes, regulations

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Statutes

• Organized chronologically
• Session laws
• U.S. Statutes at Large (Stat.)
• Laws of Washington

• Organized by subject (current laws in force)
• Code
• U.S. Code
• Revised Code of Washington

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Legal Citation Format U.S. laws

• Public Law
• Pub.L. No. 107-56
• Statutes at Large
• 115 Stat. 276
• Codes
• 42 U.S.C. 9601-9675 (2004)
• Title United States Code Sections (year)

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Image of U.S. Public Law

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
  Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-191.

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Annotated Codes

• Commercially-published
• Include text of law history
• Provide citations to cases, regulations, law
  review articles, encyclopedias, forms
• Updated promptly
• United States Code Annotated (USCA)
• United States Code Service (USCS)
• on LexisNexis Academic Congressional

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Finding Statutes

• Popular Names Table
• USA Patriot Act (Pub. L. 107-56, 115 Stat.
  276)(Oct. 26, 2001)
• National Bone Marrow Registry Reauthorization Act
  of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 274)
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
  Act (HIPAA)
• Index volume of USCS or USCA
• Cases
• Secondary sources (law review articles etc.)

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Finding Statutes - online

• Lexis Nexis Congressional and Academic
• Thomas (http//thomas.loc.gov)
• Washington State Legislature (http//apps.leg.wa.g
  ov/billinfo/)

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Where do you find Constitutions?

• Federal
• United States Code Annotated (USCA)
• United States Code Service (USCS) on LexisNexis
  Academic Congressional
• GPO Access, http//www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/
  index.html
• State
• Revised Code of Washington (RCW)
• All 50 state statutes on LexisNexis Academic
• Cornells Legal Information Institute,
  http//www.law.cornell.edu/statutes.html

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Administrative Law

• Rules, regulations, and decisions created by
  administrative agencies (federal and state).
• Authorized by Statute
• Power to issue regulations adjudicate disputes
  delegated to executive agencies by Congress via
  an enabling statute.
• Procedural Standards? YES Administrative
  Procedure Act (APA) (5 USC 551 et seq.).
• Notice of proposed rule
• Comment period
• Final rule response to comments

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U.S. Regulations

• Federal Register
• Published daily
• Includes
• proposed regulations new regulations
• Presidential documents Executive Orders
  Proclamations
• Code of Federal Regulations
• Published annually
• Includes current rules regulations in force
• Index finding tables

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Citation Format Regulations

• 65 Fed. Reg. 3415 (Jan. 21, 2000)
• Volume Federal Register Page (date)
• 7 CFR 319.76 (2003)
• TitleCode of Federal RegulationsSection (year)

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Sample Regulation

• 42 CFR Part 121

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How to find Regulations?

• Index to the Code of Federal Regulations
• CFR Index volume (KF70 at Ref Area)
• USCS Index to the CFR (KF 62 at Ref Area)
• Wests CRF Index (KF70 .A34 at Ref Area)
• Federal Register Index
• Unified Agenda (published in April October)
• Annotated Codes
• United States Code Annotated (USCA)
• United States Code Service (USCS)
• Secondary Sources

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Regulations Online

• LexisNexis Academic and Congressional
• GPO Access, http//www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/

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Secondary Sources

• Law Reviews
• Full-Text on Lexis Nexis Academic
• Use an index to find articles, LegalTrac
• Books
• Law Library Catalog
• UW Libraries Catalog

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Update Your Research

• Cases use online citator (Shepards or Keycite)
• Statutes check pocket parts supplements
  (print)
• Regulations use List of Sections Affected (LSA)
  Federal Register (print)

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Free Websites with U.S. Legal Information

• Internet Legal Research http//lib.law.washington.
  edu/research/research.html
• Cornells Legal Information Institute
  http//www.law.cornell.edu/
• Findlaw http//www.findlaw.com/
• GPO Access http//www.gpoaccess.gov/
• Thomas http//thomas.loc.gov/
• U.S. Supreme Court http//www.supremecourtus.gov/i
  ndex.html

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Conclusion

• Cases, Statutes, Regulations law reviews
  available
• In PRINT at Gallagher Law Library
• ONLINE via UW Libraries Law subject webpage
  (http//www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Law/)
• Questions? Ask a Librarian lawrefst_at_u.washingto
  n.edu