Month: June 2019

Hi all,

Indexes and Table of Contents 

Some of you are not familiar with Indexes and Table of Contents (TOC) as you might be.  You will find indexes and Table of Contents both in print and online.

For example, treatises have  indexes and Table of Contents.  Many times when you use a print treatise you look at the  TOC to see what is covered in general and then look at the index to find the page where your topic is covered.  Both TOCs and Indexes are also available online.  The online version allows full-text searching which sometimes can be very useful and sometimes not so much as you know.  An index is designed to provide  straight forward access to appropriate areas of the book.  You may need to use a couple of different terms until you find the right one for that index. And, many times indexes use cross-references to get you to use term used in the index.

Indexes can be very useful in locating statutes.  Again, cross-references can indicate the term that is used in the index.  Also, if you look up Adoption for example, you will see  list of all the statutes under adoption and this will give you a view of the entire area.  You may be looking up Consent but you may see another applicable statute to the legal issue that you are researching.

Here is the link to the article, Go Ahead Google Then Do a Subject Based Search Student Lawyer

You can also find it in Module 6 in TWEN.

Session Law and Codes

Many of you need to review the relationship between session laws and codes.

Think about I`m Just a Bill -Schoolhouse Rock (recording 3:00

Remember that Bill became a LAW…A SESSION LAW.   When bills are passed by the house and senate and signed by executive in both states as well as the U.S. Congress, they become laws – session laws.  These laws are organized and published  in chronological order.  Called rightly enough Session Laws.  Note there are variations on the title in states but the concept is the same.  And, as you know session laws can amend and repeal law so if you want to know what the current law is you may need to look at many session laws.

To avoid this problem, the session laws are codified, the current laws are organized by subject.  For example, the Florida Statutes are the current laws organized by topic and the Laws of Florida are the session laws.

Link to the Florida Statutes and Constitution page:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?Tab=statutes&submenu=-1&CFID=55697540&CFTOKEN=dc2fbe233a28bf81-FB304F49-5056-B837-1A36FA2603B702C6  

Legislative History

How a bill becomes a law is fascinating.  You may want to skim the daily news for what is happening in Congress and the state legislatures to learn about the process in action.

For example, take a look at the June 26th article,  Senate Approves $4.6 Billion Bill for Border with Fewer Restrictions

 The article discusses the Senate and House bills on emergency humanitarian aid for the southwestern border and possible next  moves.

It is also available in Module 4 in TWEN.

Please let me know your comments and questions.

Bye.

Jane Meyers is the co-owner of Maricopa Press, a publication specializing in local history and culture.  Maricopa Press is one of your firm’s regular clients.  She has sent you the following email unrelated to her usual business.  Looking only at the Arizona statutes, what advice can you provide your client?

To:  Eager Young Associate

From:  Jane Meyers

RE:  Need legal advice

I’m writing today on a personal matter.  Last night, I was having dinner with my partner and our two children at Sunshine Eatery and Bistro.  My two-year old was feeling cranky and wanted to nurse.  I didn’t even think about it, I just settled him on my breast and continued the dinner conversation.  A few minutes later, the waiter came by and asked me to take my child to the bathroom, if I was going to continue “doing that.” He pointed vaguely at my chest and I realized that he was embarrassed by my nursing.

Honestly, there were women in the restaurant who were showing more skin with their low-cut dresses.  I lured my son away from my breast with promises of ice cream, but I felt guilty about that.  I didn’t want to nurse him in the bathroom.

Later I mentioned the incident on Facebook and one of my friends told me there were laws protecting women’s rights to breast-feed in public places.  She lives in Washington State where I’m sure there are such laws.

My question for you is – do we have such laws in Arizona?  If so, is there something I can do to get this restaurant to stop sending women to the restroom to feed their babies?

____________________________________________

Arizona Statute:

A.R.S. section 41-1443  Breast-feeding: public place; public accommodation

A mother is entitled to breast-feed in any area of a public place or a place of public accommodation where the mother is otherwise lawfully present.

Our client asked us what she could do to get this restaurant to stop sending women to the restroom to feed their babies.  What, if any, remedies does the statute provide?

As it turns out this statute appears among the Civil Rights statutes, which create a civil right of action, including attorneys fees and statutory damages for violations of Civil Rights laws.

A.R.S. section 41-1471 Charge by persons aggrieved; investigation; conciliation agreement; civil action; temporary relief

However, as it turns out, the remedies apply only to enumerated sections of the Civil Rights laws and the right to breastfeed in public is not enumerated.  See footnote.

So a right without a remedy.

Note that other states, including Washington, have similar statutes that do provide a remedy.

Please let me know your comments or questions.

Bye.

Hi all,

Annotated include more that statutes.  It also includes cases that have discussed the statute, secondary sources that have cited the statute,  the history of the statute, including amendments, and other resources.  Annotated Statutes are in a sense – one-stop shopping.  You can find the statute, cases, and secondary sources all in one package.  Be sure when you are using Lexis and Westlaw you know where to find the cases, secondary sources, etc.  When you are using Westlaw, be sure to use the Notes of Decisions.  The Notes of Decisions are important because they are summaries of important cases interpreting the statute.  All of the features of the annotated statutes are in both the print and online formats.

You can KeyCite and Shepardize the statutes.  Again, be sure to use KeyCite and Shepard’s when you are researching statutes.

The last assessment question dealt with the currency and versions of the statute.  Always be sure that you know the currency of the statute that you are using.  You need to be sure that it is current through the last legislative session,  However, if you were dealing with a matter that happened in 2015,  you may need to use the statutes that were in effect in 2015.  If so, then you need to find and use the 2015 version of the statute.  Also, when you are using KeyCite and Shepardize remember that the statute may have changed over the years and be alert so that you are using information that is dealing with the appropriate version.

Please let me know your comments and questions.

Bye.

Forum Discussion Question:

All the passengers getting off a flight to Miami were taken to a small room at the airport by Miami police. They were questioned and their clothing and luggage was searched.

You decide to begin by looking for cases although you usually start with secondary sources.

HI all,

Let’s start with the Discussion Forum Questions.

In general, please remember to answer all the questions that I asked in Forum Discussion posts.  Also,  your responses should more than something like “I did the same” or “I liked it.”  Pick out something in the answer and extend it.

Forum Discussion Questions:

Google Scholar:  Using Google Scholar, find a useful legal periodical article on the subject of adoption in Florida, specifically dealing with the father’s consent.  Cite the article using Bluebook citation form and explain what the Cited By reference means and why it would be useful in research.

Hello,

This is the replacement of the earlier post.

Here is the Authority Rank Summary Details     It is also available in Module 5 in TWEN.

The Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution is the most authoritative.  It is ranked # 1.  All 15 votes.

The next item with the highest number of points was a federal trial case in the Federal Supplement.   To locate the case, citations to the Federal Supplement case and the Florida Law Weekly were provided.  Note, there were also a United States Supreme Court with a link to Quizlaw and a link to Wikipedia.  Neither are authoritative places to locate the decision so both would have much lower rankings.  Can you count on QuizLaw and Wikipedi having the correct decision on their websites?  You can count on accessing the case in the Federal Supplement by using the citation.

American Jurisprudence 2d and the treatise written by Rotunda and Nowak were tied for third place.  American Jurisprudence 2d does not make sense. It is not an authoritative source, but it is a great research tool use to get an overview of an area of law.  Florida Jurisprudence 2d which is also an encyclopedia was also ranked fairly high.  Again, a great research tool, but not an authoritative source,  However, the treatise written by Nowak and Rotunda is an authoritative source.  And, the Bittker and Denning is also an authoritative source.

Law review can also be authoritative sources.  To make you decision you need to read the article, learn about the author, and consider the publisher. The article is the most critical piece.

One of the items was an article in the NYT by Linda Greenhouse.  She was the United States Supreme Court reporter for years.   She was very respected.  But her article in the NYT is probably not very authoritative in this context.  Although, her books clearly would be.

The last item is Constitutional Law in the Turning Point Series.  Not a very authoritative source.

Please let me know your comments and questions.

Bye.

Hi all,

CALI Lesson:

There are  number of reasons why it is important to learn terms and connector searching.  One is that it focuses your attention on the search query – you need to think what terms to use for your search, how near they should be to each other, and where you want to see them in the case, law review article, treatise, etc.

For example, You want to retrieve documents about a dog or canine or German Shepherd biting or scratching a suspect.

Which is the source more likely to find a case on point?

1.  dog  AND bite AND suspect
2. dog OR canine OR “german shepherd” /S bit! OR scratch! /P suspect

Think about the first search – you are requiring Westlaw Edge and Lexis Advance to retrieve cases that have the term dog, bite and suspect to be anywhere in the case.  Dog could be on page one, bite on page 25, and suspect on page 30.  That case may not be very promising.

And the second search – here you are requiring dog, canine or “german shepard” in the same sentence as bite or biting or bitten or scratch within the same paragraph as suspect.  Much more promising.

You still may need to adjust your search to find the best cases but you definitely will be further along with search number 2.

And, remember that you also have the ability to filter after the search.

And, of course, before you search you need to decide what resources you are going to search.

Remember that searching is an process.  It is an iterative process. You may want to keep  notes on what searches worked and which did not. And, keep notes on filtering, etc.  For the Research Guide, you provide the search(es) that return the best results.  Best search(es) for best results.

You also need to consider the type of materials you are searching.  Your search queries for cases may be different that your search queries for law review articles since the terms the author use and the placement with in the materials may be different.  And you may decide for statutes that you will use a natural language search rather than a terms and connectors search since statutes are written very differently cases.

A “Google”  or “Bing” or other search engine search rarely will suffice in a complex, legal database.

From looking at the answers to the CALI lesson and the assessment quiz, many of you may want to review the materials on searching, especially before you begin working on the Research Guide.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Assessment Quiz:

Many of the questions on the Assessment Quiz were from the CALI lesson.  So please see again the information about the CALI Lesson.

I just want to comment on a couple of questions that did not involve searching.

DuckDuckGo allows you to search the web without being tracked.  You can stay anonymous online.  This may be useful in some instances.

American Jurisprudence 2d is NOT more authoritative than Rotunda’s and Nowak’s  treatise.  American Jurisprudence 2d is an legal encyclopedia.  It aims to cover the entire body of legal doctrine in broad strokes.  An encyclopedia is not generally seen as a persuasive secondary source, but it usually provides a good overview of an area of law.  Nowak’s and Rotunda’s treatise is a very authoritative source.  It is an in-depth treatise written by two respected scholars which provides comprehensive coverage of an area of law including criticism and suggested improvements.  Treatises, in general, have no binding authority but many are highly respected and have been cited by courts.

Bye.

Some thoughts in no particular order:

Domain Names:

.org started out for non-profit organizations but now it is used for both non-profit and for-profit entities.  Right entities using .org is very diverse, including cultural institutions, associations, sports teams, religious, and civic organizations, open-source software projects, schools, environmental initiatives, social, and fraternal organizations, health organizations, legal services, as well as clubs, and community-volunteer groups. Some cities also use .org.

.com started out for commercial entities but it now it is used for general purposes, including state agencies.  For example, https://www.freshfromflorida.com/ is the URL for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Institute for Historical Review:

One of the methods of evaluation of the website would be to look at the media articles.  Do you recognize and know all the media outlets?  For example, what is RT-News?  You might take a quick look at Wikipedia or some other resource.

Another would be to take a look at the articles written by individuals published on the website.  I took a look at Mark Weber’s article on Biden.   http://ihr.org/other/biden_jewish_role   It looks like he is summarizing a speech that Biden gave in 2013.  He started a sentence in the article – “Biden might also have mentioned……” and then went on to discuss items that I did not think that Biden would have said.  I realized then I needed to know more about Mr. Weber and took a look at Wikipedia.

Wikipedia was very useful.  I assume that we all  know how Wikipedia works, but if you do not please contact me.  Wikipedia can be a quick way to begin to get a read in certain areas.

Many of you realized that this website was not to be trusted.  For those of you who did not, please take a look at all the forum answers and responses and re-look at the website.  Accurate evaluation of websites is a critical skill. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hi all,

I have looked at the analytics from the following CALI lessons:

Subject Specific Treatises, Introduction to Search Logic and Strategies, American Law Reports, Internet Legal Resources – Free Resources, and Evaluating Websites.

This post will cover Subject Specific Treatises, Introduction to Search Logic and Strategies, and American Law Reports.  Another post will discuss the two other lessons.

Let’s start with American Law Reports (ALR).  At the beginning, West Publishing had decided that they would publish every case decision that they could get their hands on.  So that was their business model – the National Reporter System.  Lawyers Cooperative Publishing came along and they realized that they could not compete with West’s business model so they decided to publish an important case and then to write an annotation that described other decisions on similar issues to accompany the case.  So the case is just a starting point for them.   You should cite the “important case” using the West cite – the National Reporter System cite  and possibly the state cite, if appropriate. You could include if you thought it important the ALR citation of the case and annotation but folks are going to want to read and cite the case using the National Reporter System Citation and possibly the state cite, if appropriate.

Next – Introduction to Search Logic and Strategies.  I will talk about this lesson when I post on the Module 2 Assessment Quiz.

And – Subject Specific Treatises.   Just a couple of points.  One of the asked is an administrative regulation was a good place to consult in order to locate a treatise.  Neither a regulation  nor a statute would be a good place to locate a treatise.  Both are primary law.  You might find a citation to a treatise if you were using a resource that annotated the statute or regulation.  That is to say, included information about the statute or regulation as well as the statute or regulation itself.  Now case decisions which are also primary law might mention a treatise but a case decisions would not be good places to consult to locate a treatise on a specific topic.

Hope this is useful.  Please let me know your questions.