Legal Research Guidelines

Getting Started:

First, organize your thoughts. Many legal conflicts or issues are complex, and it will help if you begin by clearly stating your question.

Once the legal question has been asked it is necessary to determine the JURISDICTION – in other words, the particular subject and locality. Jurisdiction determines which court or government agency can resolve the conflict prior to initiating legal research.

When jurisdiction has been determined, one must be able to understand citations and abbreviations contained within the law books. Most law books are cited in order of volume number, book and page. For example:

410 U.S. 113 – signifies volume 410 of United States Reports page 113.

Statutes are cited by statute title and section number. For example:

CPL 30.10 – signifies article 30, section 30.10 of the Criminal Procedure law for the New York State Consolidated Laws.

New York State case law is cited as:

42 N.Y.S 2d 98 - signifies volume 42 of New York Supplement 2^nd Series page 98.

Where To Go:

When the legal question has been formulated and the jurisdiction established, decide where to go to locate the information. The White Plains Public Library owns the McKinney’s New York Consolidated Laws as well as certain parts of the U.S. Code, texts, and self-help materials as well as the facilities for Internet access.

The Library is also in close proximity to the New York Supreme Court Law Library - Westchester (refer to chapter 7 of this handbook), which contains an extensive collection of legal resources. Local law school libraries such as PACE University also offer limited access to their law library collection (Metro Card access – ask Librarian at Reference Desk).

The Internet, although not a comprehensive source for legal materials, offers a good starting point for searching for legal information (refer to chapter 6 of this handbook).

What To Look At:

• SELF-HELP BOOKS or KITS – contain instructions and forms and are usually available for common legal issues such as divorce, bankruptcy, child custody, wills, landlord-tenant agreements and many other legal subjects. Self-help books are usually written by lawyers in easy to understand terms that will decrease time spent on research
• PRACTICE AIDS and FORM BOOKS – although intended for lawyers, these may be useful for anyone. Some examples of practice aids are American Jurisprudence Trials, American Jurisprudence Proof of Facts and Shepard’s Causes of Action, which give guidance in what evidence a court must be given and how to proceed. Form books aid in the drafting of legal documents or documents that need to be filed in court. General form books include American Jurisprudence Legal Forms, West’s Legal Forms and West’s Federal Forms.
• LEGAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS – provide a good starting point to get an overview of a topic. There are two general legal encyclopedias: Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S) and American Jurisprudence 2d (Am. Jur.2d).
• TEXTS and TREATISES – contain the law on a specific subject, sometimes a specific jurisdiction, and often include forms. The briefest are those in West Publishing Co.’s Nutshell Series (the Library owns several books in the Nutshell series).
• ARTICLES – printed in law journals or law reviews published commercially or by law schools or bar associations. Subject may be located in printed or online indexes, such as Index to Legal Periodicals or Legal Resource Index (legal trac). Some articles may be found online for free at sites such as Jurist’s Law Review page (see chapter 6 in this handbook for web address).
• CODES – contain legal rules known as statutes, regulations or ordinances, which are mandatory, meaning that courts must follow them. Codes are accessed through an index that refers you to a numbered section. They are updated by supplements or pocket parts or are in loose-leaf form. The White Plains Public Library owns the McKinney’s New York Consolidated Laws (statutes) as well as portions of the U.S. Code. For pending and new Federal laws, Thomas, the government Web site for legislative information, at Thomas.loc.gov, should be referred to. Regulations of federal agencies are contained in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R), which may be accessed at www.access.gpo.gov.
• COURT RULES – state the procedures by which a dispute must make its way to court and how the resolution of the dispute is to be conducted. Court rules focus on such topics as time limitations and formal requirements for pleadings and other court documents or processes. Procedural law may be found in the statutory and administrative codes; however, court rules are generally more detailed and can vary from court to court.
• REPORTS or REPORTERS – contain opinions (sometimes referred to as decisions or cases) taken by courts to explain how and why certain legal rules were used to resolve a dispute in a particular lawsuit. These rules constitute "common law" and are adhered to by courts deciding subsequent cases with similar facts and issues in order to maintain consistency. Decisions made by a higher court are mandatory and must be followed if coming from a higher court in the same jurisdiction or from the U.S. Supreme Court. In some cases the decision is not mandatory; however, court may still find it persuasive and abide by it.

  Cases decided in the U.S. Supreme Court are reported in the United States Reports (U.S.) and are reprinted in the Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct). Newer Supreme Court cases are available on the Web at www.supremecourtus.gov at the opinions link. Cases from the intermediate U.S. Court of Appeals (U.S. Circuit Courts) are printed in the Federal Reporter, first, second or third series (F., F.2d and F.3d). 

  State appellate court opinions are printed in state reports. California, Illinois and New York generate a large amount of case law, so they have their own reporters (other states are printed in regional reporters). New York decisions are printed in the New York Supplement (N.Y.S and N.Y.S. 2d).

  There are several methods to find opinions in reports. Reports are not arranged by subject and the sets are not indexed; therefore you may find a reference from text or footnotes of texts, encyclopedias or other cases. Annotated codes (McKinney’s is annotated) will list cases that have cited a statute following the text of the statute.
  

• DIGESTS – are the traditional means for finding case law. West Publishing Co. publishes digests for federal jurisdictions, and most states including New York. The most commonly used digest system is West’s American Digest System, which divides the law into about 400 topics. Each topic is subdivided into principles or points of law, which are assigned a "Key Number." Under each Key Number are brief abstracts from cases, which summarize the points of each case, and citations to where each case can be found. There is also a Descriptive Word Index that uses common words to link to the right topic and key number. The digest also contains a Case Table, which can be used to look up a citation if only the name of the case is known.
• AMERICAN LAW REPORTS (A.L.R.) – best used, for maximum coverage, as a finding aid for cases in all jurisdictions. Contains annotations, which describe legal topics in depth. Also provides analysis of court decisions from all jurisdictions.
• LOOSELEAF SERVICES – are useful cross-references that draw together text, statutes, regulations, and opinions of courts and administrative agencies on specific, vital topics that require constant updates. Examples include Standard Federal Tax Reporter, United States Tax Reporter, Employment Practices Guide, Bankruptcy Law Reports and Criminal Law Reports.

Before You Stop The Research Process:

Check supplements (pocket parts inserted into back covers of volumes) to ensure all updated material is taken into account.

Check citators (Shepard’s is the most common) in order to ascertain whether the validity of a case or statute has been affected in some manner, such as being reversed, overruled or ruled unconstitutional (for statutes). Citators are also used to determine if one case has been cited by another case.

When You Stop The Research Process:

Once you keep reading the same legal rule after thoroughly covering the sources listed above – you can take this as confirmation that your legal research has been comprehensive enough to render a reliable answer to your legal question. Simply looking at one source whether it is statutes, case law or regulations is not recommended if you wish to answer a complex or simple legal question.

IMPORTANT: An attorney may be required to answer a legal question. Always consult an attorney when appropriate in order to protect your rights and avoid misinterpretation.