PUBLIC LIBRARY LEGAL RESEARCH PRESENTATION

PUBLIC LIBRARIES -- LEGAL RESEARCH

Basic Research Manual -- Locating the Law ( published by the

Southern California Assoc. of Law Libraries)

http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/scall/

How laws are made

In case you forget:

CA http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bil2lawx.html

FED http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html

Why is this important? Laws are given different numbers at different stages. If you are given a “number,” you need to know to what stage that number refers.

[A lesson in the many "numbers" of laws in California (parallel in Federal system)

First # Bill # -- for that session of the legislature; numbers are assigned in the order that bills are introduced.each session

(S.B. # or A.B. #)

Second # Chapter # -- numbers are assigned in the order that governor signs each year (the US laws at this stage are called PUBLIC Laws) These are published as the Statutes and Amendments to the Codes.

Third # Code # -- number assigned when the whole Chapter or a part is assigned to a logical location in the existing California Codes, by topic. These are published as West's Annotated California Codes and Deerings California Codes Annotated. (US codes are published as USC, USCA, USCS)]

Codes

Free on the Internet – unannotated version

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

FED

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html

Cases

Are cases that have been appealed (not the first trial); the written decision of the judge is what is published.

Are used as “precedent.” Only published cases can be used as precedent. Subsequent cases can “overturn” an earlier case.

Are published in State or Regional or Subject Specific REPORTERS. May appear in more than one reporter.

Some are Free on Internet at:

http://www.findlaw.com/

http://www.lexisone.com/

Legal concepts

CITATIONS http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

PRECEDENT

In case you forget:

Definitions/legal dictionary

http://www.lectlaw.com

http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/dictionary/wordindex.cfm

Local legal resources

Calif. State self help website --

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/

Superior Court of SJ County –

http://www.stocktoncourt.org/courts/

Law library resources

SJ County http://www.sjclawlib.org

Council of California County Law Librarians http://www.cccll.org/

Melvyl – for ILL (includes State Law Lib & some law schools)

Law Schools – for research guides (search on Google)

Legal Search Engines/General Websites

                                http://www.findlaw.com/

                                http://www.hg.org/index.html

                                http://www.lexisone.com/

Forms

Judicial Council Forms –

http://www.accesslaw.com/

Local Forms --

http://www.stocktoncourt.org/courts/forms.htm

Rules

State http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/

Local http://www.stocktoncourt.org/courts/rules.htm

Pleading Paper

http://www.uslegalforms.com/paper/capleading.doc

Other Types of Legal Research Materials

Digests, Encyclopedias, Treatises, ALR, Law Reviews