Introduction to Legal Research Class 1 Legal Authority: Primary

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Introduction to Legal ResearchClass 1Legal
Authority Primary SecondaryHow to Use
LawCatLegal Abbreviations BiebersCitation
Manuals ALWD Bluebook

• Professor Denise Gibson
• Section 5

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Legal Authority

• Primary source (authority) the law itself
• Secondary source (authority) explains and/or
  analyzes primary authority

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Primary Authority primary authority is the law
itself

• U.S. Constitution
• State constitutions
• Federal statutes
• State statutes
• Federal cases
• State cases
• Federal regulations
• State regulations

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Examples of resources which contain primary
authority

• Case Reporters, such as United States Reports or
  South Eastern Reporter, contain the text of court
  opinions.
• Statutory Codes, such as the Official Code of
  Georgia (OCGA) or United States Code contain the
  text of statutes.

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Secondary authority summarize, analyze, or
comment on the law

• Legal Periodicals
• Restatements
• Treatises
• American Law Reports (ALR)
• Legal Encyclopedias

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• .
• All court opinions are considered primary
  authority. How to determine the weight of
  authority for court opinions, e.g, which case to
  use to argue a legal issue in a court of law?
• Jurisdiction
• the power, right, or authority to interpret and
  apply the law Which court system should properly
  adjudicate a case? State or Federal? Question of
  state law or federal law? Whose law governs?
• Level of Court Within a jurisdiction, what is
  the level of the court? Trial, Intermediate
  Appellate, or Court of Last Resort?
• Primary authority may be mandatory or persuasive
  depending on the circumstances, i.e.,
  jurisdiction and level of court.
• Secondary authority is NEVER mandatory it can
  only be persuasive.

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Primary Authority may either be

• Mandatory
• Decisions of a higher court in the same
  jurisdiction
• Legislative materials for the jurisdiction

• Persuasive
• Decisions of lower courts in the same
  jurisdiction
• Decisions of courts of other jurisdictions
• Secondary sources
• Legislative materials from other states

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Primary Mandatory or Primary Persuasive?

• A decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court on the
  Georgia Supreme Court?

• A Colorado statute on the Georgia Supreme Court?
• A decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals on the
  Georgia Supreme Court?

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• Secondary Sources

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An example of a secondary source a treatise
Can be a single volume or a multi-volume
scholarly work, e.g. Corbin on Contracts
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Another example of a secondary authority
-American Law Reports ALR

• Secondary authority, not a reporter
• Six series covering state issues
• Federal set covering only federal issues
• 4 ALR 5th 273

Volume 4
5th series
Page number
6th
American Law Reports
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Periodical Citation 74 Harv. L. Rev. 5 (1968)

• 74 volume
• Harv. L. Rev. Harvard Law Review
• 5 first page of the article
• 1968 year

Primary or Secondary?
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How to find sources in the library which contain
primary and secondary authority? Use our catalog!
LawCat
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What LawCat does not have

• It is NOT a full text source. More like an index
  to what the library owns or subscribes to.
• What LawCat will do
• Provide information on whether the library owns a
  particular legal periodical,
• Provide information on whether the library owns a
  particular book, microform, film, sound
  recording, etc.

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Example of a bibliographic record in LawCat can
search for terms within this record only author,
title, subject, publisher, call number and note
(sometimes contains chapter headings) and
thats about it!!
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LawCat searching Keyword search Alternate
spellings
Treatise on healthcare Search term Healthcare
spelled as one word
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LawCat searching
17 results
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LawCat searching
Treatise on healthcare health care spelled as
two words
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764 results catalog entries are arranged
numerically (although none here) and then
alphabetically by title - note that there are
books and microform listed, and even a sound
recording.
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LawCat searching keyword search Truncation to
find different forms of a word.
need treatise on Workers' Compensation Workmens
compensation or workers compensation ?? Which is
it??
Use asterisk to search for different endings of
work Example work compensation
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128 results found materials that contain either
the word workers or the word workmens (note
that in this result, we can also see that the
entries are arranged numerically, and then
alphabetically by title)
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LawCat searching
can narrow search by entering a jurisdiction
work compensation Georgia
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LawCat searching - narrow to a jurisdiction - 45
results out of the prior 128 results
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Another truncation example

• If you enter Georgia tort (singular) as a keyword
  search, you will receive 32 hits,
• If you enter Georgia torts (plural) as a keyword
  search, you will receive 21 hits,
• BUT,
• if you enter Georgia tort you will be looking
  for both the singular and the plural of tort and
  you will receive 48 hits!

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Now we are searching for a treatise on real
property.
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237 results
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Limiting option
Since we received a large number of entries, you
can limit the number of entries by choosing
limit this search button.
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Many ways to limit here, we wish to find only
those materials dealing with real property that
are in the reserve collection behind the
circulation desk.
Choose WHERE Item is located, and then select
Reserve from drop down box
Submit
Click Submit
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9 items dealing with real property in the reserve
collection
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Remember the 764 results we received from typing
health care as two words? Included in the results
were microform and books if you wish to find
only books and not microform, then use the limit
this search option on the results screen and
then.
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Choose material type and select print from
drop down box
Submit
Click Submit
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Now we have 178 print items out of the prior 764
results. The 764 results had non-print materials
such as audio cassettes, sound recordings,
microform, etc.
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• Primary Sources

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LawCat searching Primary Source
You want to find where the South Eastern
Reporter, a primary source, is located in the law
library
click "title" radio button, and enter "South
Eastern Reporter"
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LawCat searching Primary Source
choose "Second Series"
Choose Wests south eastern reporter
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LawCat searching Location and Range numbers
Location Georgia Collection GA-4 denotes fourth
range of shelves in the Georgia collection
GA-4 denotes Georgia Collection, fourth range of
shelves
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Another example of location and range numbers for
reporters North Eastern Reporter
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Case Citation 425 So. 2d 97 (Fla. 1976)

• 425 volume
• So. Southern Reporter
• 2d series
• 97 page
• Fla. Florida Supreme Court (vs. Fla. App.)
• 1976 year of decision

Primary or Secondary? Mandatory or Persuasive in
a Georgia Court?
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Interpreting legal abbreviations

• Biebers Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations
• ALWD Citation Manual
• Bluebook Citation Manual

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Interpreting an abbreviation you dont know
Northern Kentucky Law Review
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Citation Manuals Interpreting a citation -
appendices
The ALWD Citation Manual Appendix 1 identifies
primary sources for each jurisdiction Appendix 3
general abbreviations Appendix 4 court
abbreviations Appendix 5 abbreviations for
legal periodicals
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Citation Manuals Interpreting a citation
The Bluebook A Uniform System of Citation ( 18th
ed.) Table 1 identifies primary sources for each
jurisdiction Table 13 legal periodicals