Name: Professor: Stafford - Stafford
Name:
Name:
Name:
2013 1L Library Legal Research Exercise #1
Getting Started: Statutes and Cases
The main purpose of this library research exercise is to introduce you to two types of research resources—statutes and cases—you will encounter in your Legal Writing class and in the practice of law. You will work in groups of three in completing this exercise – each group will turn in one exercise with all three of your names on it. You are encouraged to ask the reference librarians for help.
This exercise is due on Friday, September 13, at 9:00 a.m. Please upload the finished assignment to the Assignment Drop-Box on the TWEN 1L Legal Research Course page by the due date. After completing this exercise, your group will need to schedule an appointment with Prof. Robert Linz using the Sign-Up Sheets on the TWEN 1L Legal Research Course page. The videos are located on the TWEN 1L Legal Research course page under “Course Materials.”
Use print or online resources as directed to answer these questions.
Statutes
Statutes are the laws enacted by the legislative branch of government. To simplify research, statutes are published into codes, which are subject organizations of in-force statutes. In Colorado, the General Assembly publishes its statutory law in the Colorado Revised Statutes (“C.R.S.”). The C.R.S. is published by two publishing companies—the red Colorado Revised Statutes by LexisNexis and the blue Colorado Revised Statutes Annotated by Thomson Reuters (West). For the following questions, please use the red C.R.S. set.
1. Using the index is the most common way to find a specific C.R.S. code section on a given topic.
a. Locate the latest edition of the C.R.S. (either in Reference near the Reference Desk or in the Colorado section of the law library.)
b. Locate the Index volumes for this set. These two volumes are located at the end of the set on the shelf.
c. Look in the index volumes to find the code section that addresses the use of physical force in self-defense as an exception from criminal liability. What is the index entry for self-defense ?
Answer:
d. Provide the citation to the code section where the use of physical force in self-defense as an exception from criminal liability is addressed. The citation takes the form of, for example, “8-3-102”, where the first number is the Title (i.e., 8), the second number is the Article (i.e., 3), and the third number is the section number (i.e., 102).
Answer:
e. Using this citation, locate the code section by reading the spines of the C.R.S. volumes for the appropriate title and then locating the particular section listed in your citation.
f. What is the title of this code section?
Answer:
g. Statutory codes are arranged by subject, which means that when you conduct statutory research, you should always look at surrounding code sections to see if any other sections are relevant to your issue. Look at the table of contents at the beginning of Title 18: Criminal Code to find a statute that discusses the use of deadly force against an intruder specifically. What is the citation to that code section?
Answer:
h. Using the code section you found in 1d. How many numbered subsections does it contain?
Answer:
i. After providing the text of the code section, the publisher provides annotations or cross- references to cases, legal encyclopedia articles, and other publications applicable to this code section. For this particular section, the publisher provides citations to several law review articles. What is the title and citation of the most recent article published in The Colorado Lawyer (i.e., Colo. Law.)?
Answer:
2. Often as a researcher you will want to find out when a particular statutory provision was first enacted and how it has evolved over time. You can begin the process of researching a statute’s history by referring to the Source notes, which are located immediately after the text of a particular code section following the bold-faced text “Source.”
· Watch the video entitled “How to Read Source Notes” located on the TWEN Legal Research course page and answer the following questions:
a. Look again at the code section that you found in question 1.g. above regarding use of deadly force against an intruder in the C.R.S.
b. Find the end of the code section and look at the information after the bold text “Source.” The first notation is: L. 71: p. 409, § 1. “L” is the abbreviation for the Session Laws of Colorado. “71” refers to 1971, the year in which the code section was first enacted and published in the Session Laws. If you looked at page 409, Section 1 of the Session Laws from 1971, you would find the text of the statute as it was originally enacted.
c. Information about the abbreviations often found in the Source notes is at the front of each C.R.S. volume, at pages vi-ix. Find these pages and scan them briefly.
d. Now look at the Source notes for your code section again – what is the second notation in bold-faced type?
Answer:
e. Briefly explain what the notation stands for:
Answer:
3. You have now found Colorado statutes using print resources. You can also find statutes in various electronic databases. Lexis Advance is one such database. For the following questions, use Lexis Advance.
· Watch the video on the TWEN Legal Research course page entitled “Starting Your Research with a Statutory Citation” on Lexis Advance first, then answer the following questions:
a. Using Lexis Advance, locate C.R.S. §18-1-704.5. Through what date is this code section current?
Answer:
b. How many “Case Notes” are there?
Answer:
c. Using the Case Notes, locate a case that discusses that the defendant must prove she had a reasonable belief that the intruder was committing or intended to commit a crime against a person or property. Provide the full citation to that case.
Answer:
d. What is the last name of the judge who wrote the opinion?
Answer:
e. What court decided this case?
Answer:
f. If you are in the Colorado District Court in Denver, is this case binding or persuasive? Why?
Answer:
Cases
4. In Question 3 you learned how to use the annotated code to find cases interpreting your code section. These cases are referred to as “Case Notes” in Lexis Advance. As you have probably learned, cases are an important source of law. The judiciary creates case law. Initially, cases are published as slip opinions and posted to the courts’ websites. Publishers collect the individual slip opinions and publish them into reporters, i.e., case reporters. Thomson-Reuters (i.e., West) is the most comprehensive publisher of case reporters. They assign the case a citation which includes the title of the reporter (i.e., Pacific Reporter), and the volume and page number in which the case appears in that reporter.
a. Describe the citation to the case you found in 3. b. In what reporter is it published? What is the volume number? What is the page number?
Answer: ______
b. On what floor is the reporter in 4 a. located in the law library?
Answer: ______
c. Locate the print reporter containing this case. What sections are found in a case reporter? Through what date does this reporter publish cases?
Answer: ______
d. Now find the case in the reporter. How many headnotes does this case contain?
Answer: ______
5. For online publication, publishers load cases into databases. Researchers have a number of ways to retrieve a case by citation. One method is to enter the case citation into the single search box on Westlaw Next, LexisNexis and other services. At this time, open your web browser to Lexis Advance and retrieve the case you located in Question 3.c.
· Watch the video entitled “Starting Your Research with a Case Citation in Lexis Advance” located on the TWEN Legal Research course page and then locate the following features of that case:
a. What is the prior history for this case?
Answer: ______
b. Is this a state or federal case? How do you know?
Answer: ______
c. What is the docket number for this case?
Answer: ______
d. How many headnotes have been assigned to this case?
Answer: ______
6. Updating Case Law Research Using Shepard’s in Lexis Advance
It is an essential part of legal research to update all of the cases, statutes, regulations, and other authority that you cite or upon which you rely. While there are different ways to update your research, the most important way to update your case law research is to use a citator. This process is often called “Shepardizing,” named after the publication famous for this task, Shepard’s Citations. While you can still update or Shepardize in print, the online services are much better. Shepard’s is now available on LexisNexis, while Westlaw offers a competing solution called KeyCite.
· Watch the video entitled “Shepardizing Your Cases with Lexis Advance” located on the TWEN Legal Research course page and then continue with this exercise.
a. On the Lexis Advance interface, return to the case you located in 3.c and locate the button on the right side of the screen entitled “Shepardize®.”
b. Review the Shepard’s report. What symbol has been assigned to this case?
Answer: ______
c. What does the symbol mean? Why did it receive this symbol?
Answer:
d. Is this case still good law? Why or why not?
Answer: ______
e. What 2006 Colorado Supreme Court case cited this case? Please provide the full citation.
Answer: ______
6