research case law

Case law, also known as precedent or common law, is the body of prior judicial decisions that guide judges deciding issues before them. Depending on the relationship between the deciding court and the precedent, case law may be binding or merely persuasive. For example, a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is binding on ...

Introduction. Each branch of government produces a different type of law. Case law is the body of law developed from judicial opinions or decisions over time (whereas statutory law comes from legislative bodies and administrative law comes from executive bodies). This guide introduces beginner legal researchers to resources for finding judicial ...

Step 1: Record the Facts of Your Case and Create a Research Plan. Handling a legal task with authority requires confidence in the process. This is true in any practice, jurisdictional setting, or level of legal expertise. A good process should start by taking time to identify and understand the facts of your case.

1. Identifying the legal issue is not so straightforward. Legal research involves interpreting many legal precedents and theories to justify your questions. Finding the right issue takes time and patience. 2. There's too much to research. Attorneys now face a great deal of case law and statutory material.

We typically start primary law research here. If there is a controlling statute, cases you look for later will interpret that law. There are two types of statutes, annotated and unannotated. ... You can browse and search for case law by subject, citation, or using keywords. To maximize your time, identify important cases using a secondary source.

Checking the status of case law is essential in legal research. Rely on Bloomberg Law's proprietary citator, BCITE. This time-saving tool lets you know if a case is still good law. Under each court opinion, simply look to the right rail. There, you will see a thumbnail icon for "BCITE Analysis.".

To find cases using secondary sources, such as legal encyclopedias or legal treatises, see our Secondary Sources Research Guide. For additional strategies to find cases, like using statutory annotations or citators, see our Case Law Research Tutorial. Our tutorial also covers how to update cases using citators (Lexis' Shepard's tool and ...

Introduction. One of the defining features of the common law system is the emphasis placed on the precedential value of case law. Until recently, case law has not been widely available on the Internet, leaving researchers with no choice but to seek out print reporters and commercial electronic databases to locate cases of interest.

1. Court opinions typically cited to other cases to support their legal conclusions. Often these cited cases include important and authoritative decisions on the issue, because such decisions are precedential. 2. Commercial legal research databases, including Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg, supplement cases with headnotes.

The Law Library of Congress has also created freely-available legal research guides that can help researchers locate online case law sources. Subscription Databases for Case Law Research The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress.

FindLaw provides a database of case law from the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as several state supreme courts. It includes U.S. Supreme Court Opinions, U.S. Federal Appellate Court Opinions and U.S. State Supreme, Appellate and Trial Court Opinions. Search for case summaries or by jurisdiction. FindLaw provides ...

Check that you're using "good" law. Another key step to legal research is verifying that any cases and statutes you come across in your legal research are still "good" law—that is, that any legal decision you're looking to is still valid and relevant. Using an overruled or unconstitutional statute won't help you win your case.

This guide contains selected, free, online United States federal and state legal research materials. Many lawyers have access to paid databases. Yet, combining paid and free resources, can help them to avoid potentially expensive searches. According to a 2020 Legal Technology Survey Report, nearly 60% of lawyers "say they regularly use free ...

However, there are many free options for conducting case law research online. See the Library of Congress's Guide for more information: How To Find Free Case Law Online - Library of Congress. A research guide to help you locate free case law on the internet using Google Scholar, CourtListener, FindLaw, Justia, and Public Library of Law (PLoL). ...

Case law--also called 'opinions' or 'decisions'--comes from the written resolution of the issues in dispute, and is written by a judge or judges. It is not a jury verdict. (Juries decide facts; judges decide law.) Cases come from courts: trial courts, intermediate appellate courts, and appellate court of last resort, often called the "Supreme ...

FindLaw's Cases and Codes section contains resources and links for both state and federal laws. This includes resources pertaining to constitutions, statutes, cases and more. Run a search for case summaries or select a jurisdiction to browse applicable laws. For additional primary sources and articles on legal practice visit our Professional ...

Free Online Legal Information - Popular Resources. Case Law Access Project (Harvard Law) Provides access to all U.S. official published case law from 1658 to June 2018.; FindLaw for Legal Professionals (Thomson Reuters) Includes case law, case summaries, statutes, legal search engine, legal news, RSS court updates, and practice information.; Government Publishing Office (Govinfo) Access to ...

Try Lexis+ exclusive state content. Start your complimentary 7-day trial today. Free Trial. Robust state case law search, extensive sources of law, and legal resources like court dockets, legal forms and more. Find your jurisdiction to learn more.

Learn how to use FindLaw, a comprehensive source of free case law online, with this Library of Congress guide.

Identifying Legal Issues. 1. Evaluate the facts. Civil cases typically begin with a dispute, so researching case law begins by spotting the legal issues raised by the facts surrounding the dispute. At this stage, consider everything at face-value, and don't discount anything as not relevant.

Behind the scenes, Conduct Research generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identify the on-point case law, statutes, and regulations, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), along with the supporting sources and ...

1. Students X, Y and Z are sitting around a table in the library working on a group research exercise assigned by the professor which is due tomorrow. The objective of the assignment is to build on the research skills of the students. The students are talking about how to navigate the books to find the answers to the questions posed.

Demanding a higher standard in the case of Gaza would reveal, once again, the western hypocrisy in the interpretation and application of international law. In its presentation before the ICJ in January 2024, South Africa argued that a "distinctive feature" of the case against Israel is the existence of overwhelming evidence for genocidal ...

Learn how to use Google Scholar to find free case law online with this research guide from the Library of Congress.

Ninth Circuit Upholds California Law Allowing Gun Owners' Private Data to be Shared with Research Institutions in NRA-ILA-Supported Case Monday, May 13, 2024 Support NRA-ILA

Read In re Morris-Perry, 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 2372, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext's comprehensive ... Smarter Legal Research. In re Morris-Perry. Supreme Court of New York, First Department ... No. 2206 Index No. 301256/22 Case No. 2023-04737 . 05-02-2024 . Shanta Morris-Perry, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Christopher Morris-Perry ...

Caselaw Access Project. The Caselaw Access Project (CAP), maintained by the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab, includes "all official, book-published United States case law — every volume designated as an official report of decisions by a court within the United States... [including] all state courts, federal courts, and territorial ...

When President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, he announced a goal to install 500,000 new electric vehicle chargers across the nation by 2030. ... existing literature on a topic to try to produce an aggregate figure for the phenomenon in question — in this case, the average costs associated with charging infrastructure ...