Mercer Furman Smith Law Library

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Mercer Furman Smith Law Library

• Class 2 Secondary Authority
• Legal Encyclopedias
• American Law Reports (A.L.R.)
• Introduction to Legal Research
• Section 6

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Goal of legal research

• Find primary, mandatory authority

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Review

• Primary Authority is The Law
• Court Opinions
• Statutes
• Regulations
• Primary Authority may be mandatory
• Binding authority in jurisdiction
• Primary Authority may be persuasive
• Primary authority from another jurisdiction

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• Secondary Sources
• Provides a particularly useful method for
  finding primary, mandatory authority
• Legal Encyclopedias, American Law Reports
  (A.L.R.),
• Legal Periodicals, Treatises, Restatements of
  the Law

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Secondary Sources

• Commentary about the law
• - Never binding or mandatory
• Provides background information
• Leads you to primary authority through footnotes
  and references.

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When to use secondary authority

• When researching an unfamiliar area of law, or
  for a broad overview of the law
• When researching a topic for an in-depth analysis
  of the law
• When looking for primary mandatory authority or
  persuasive primary authority
• When researching an undeveloped area of law
• Among the secondary sources, some will be useful
  if you only want a broad overview of the law
  while others will be more useful for an in depth
  analysis of the law.

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Legal Encyclopedias

• Provides a general, broad overview of the law.
• Use legal encyclopedias to get background
  information on your research topic and to locate
  citations to primary authority.
• Legal encyclopedias DO NOT provide analysis or
  suggest solutions to conflicts in the law.

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Two national legal encyclopedias covers all 50
states and federal

• American Jurisprudence, (Am. Jur. 2d)
• Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.)
• Each is a multivolume set organized
  alphabetically by topic.
• Choose a national encyclopedia when your issue is
  not addressed in your state, or if you want a
  general overview of how different jurisdictions
  are treating the law.

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Am Jur and CJS Located in first row behind
reference desk.
CJS
Am Jur
Index
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State Encyclopedias

• Covers the law in that state only.
• Discussion of the law is tailored to the rules
  and court decisions within that state might lead
  directly to primary, mandatory authority (
  references to statutes, cases, regulations.)
• Citations to state cases, statutes, and
  regulations will usually be more up-to-date in
  that states encyclopedia than in a national
  legal encyclopedia.
• Provides references to other secondary sources.

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Sample volumes Florida and North Carolina state
legal encyclopedias not every state has a
legal encyclopedia
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How to find on LawCat
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(No Transcript)
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American Law Reports (A.L.R.)

• Contains articles, called annotations which
  summarizes cases from a variety of jurisdictions.
• Editors decide which area of law will be covered.
  Not every legal topic is included. Topics can be
  very narrow and specific.
• Six series of A.L.R., including A.L.R. Federal.
  Each series contains multiple volumes. Index
  volumes for entire series is at end of set.
• Updating an A.L.R. article (or annotation) is
  crucial.

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A.L.R. 5th series (current series)
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Hypo

• Pat, a law student in Georgia (not Mercer) went
  to a party (not an SBA party) on a Friday night.
  She drank several beers. She didnt feel well, so
  she decided to walk home, since it was only about
  two miles. She bid her friends farewell and took
  off. The cool Georgia air made her feel much
  better. On her way, a police officer drove by,
  slowly, looking at Pat, who wasnt walking very
  steadily. Pat then saw a bench by a bus stop, and
  decided to take a little rest. The officer drove
  around the block, stopped by Pats bench and gave
  her several sobriety tests (walking a straight
  line, standing on one foot, etc.) Pat didnt do
  well, and the officer arrested her for public
  drunkenness.
• Can Pat be convicted for public drunkenness under
  these facts?

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Develop an initial set of search terms for your
issue

• HOW ?

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Categorize information presented by the facts

• The parties involved in the problem
• The places and things involved in the problem
• Potential claims and defenses that could be
  raised
• The relief sought by the complaining party

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OR, Categorize information according to the six
questions journalists use when covering a story

• Who (law student, pedestrian, intoxicated person)
• What (drunk, intoxicated, nuisance)
• When (evening)
• Where (public street, public road, Georgia)
• Why
• How

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• Which legal secondary source should we use to
  determine whether Pat can be convicted of public
  drunkenness and why?

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Georgia Jurisprudence (Ga. Jur.)
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Ga Jur index to Criminal Law
Used search term drunk and found drunkenness
refers us to the index heading intoxication
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Under Intoxication there is a subheading,
public drunkenness refers us to Chapter 37
and sections 26 and 27.
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Article on public drunkenness begins at 37.26
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Footnote 2 from article refers to a Georgia
statute, O.C.G.A. 16-11-41(a)
Footnote 4 from article refers to a Georgia case,
304 S.E.2d 391
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(No Transcript)
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Pocket Part to a Ga. Jur. volume
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Pocket Part in back of volume updates the
information found in the main volume
Date issued
Do not rely on library stamp date
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American Jurisprudence 2d (Am Jur 2d)sample
index and volumes
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AM JUR General Index E-I Intoxicating Liquors
is the topic, public places, drunkennes in is
the subtopic, and 32 is the section number.
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Look for the topic on spine of volume. Then look
for section 32.
Article is called Drunkenness in
Public Places
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Footnote 17 from article cites to an ALR
annotation, 8 ALR3d 930
Footnote 26 from article cites to Georgia case
law Note case law from other jurisdictions as
well.
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Date issued
To update the article beyond the volume, look in
back of volume for a pocket part under the same
topic and section number.
To update further beyond the bound volume, look
in pocket part. Dated May 2004.,
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Pocket part actually contained more recent case
law. But is this newer case relevant to your
specific research situation?
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American Law Reports (A.L.R.)sample index and
volumes from 3rd, 4th and 5th series
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ALR General Index at end of set Intoxicating
Liquors is the topic Public place is the
subtopic Refers to 8 ALR 930
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ALR articles are called Annotations first
page of the annotation
References to other secondary sources
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The annotations own index
Table of Jurisdictions Represented in the
annotation
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Scope Note Preliminary discussion of what the
annotation will cover.
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Issued June 2004
Update the annotation by using the volumes
pocket part.
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An additional reference to a newer secondary
source was added in the pocket part.
An additional reference to a later annotation
discussing what constitutes a public place ALR
5th Series
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Also, check Annotation History Table in any of
the Index volumes at end of set. Why? To
determine whether your annotation was
supplemented or superseded by a later annotation.
If 8 ALR3d 930 had been updated, it would have
been here
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Sample national and state treatises on criminal
law
A state treatise
A national treatise
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• You can access CALI lessons from
• 1. The CALI disk (do not load on WIN98 or
  earlier)
• 2. Web http//www2.cali.org.
• Mercer password is MERCERstu125.
• 3. Computer lab terminals.