William A. Wise Law Library



Name: ____Professor: Rosen Felder/KiernanName: Group #: Name: Meeting date/time: * sign up to meet with your librarian before emailing the assignmentName: 2013 1L Library Legal Research Exercise #1Getting Started: Statutes and CasesThe 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 your librarian, Joan Policastri (joan.policastri@colorado.edu ), 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.StatutesStatutes 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). Statutory research often is done easier using the print publications, so we’ll start our exercise with them. For the following questions, please use the LexisNexis (red) C.R.S. set. LexisNexis is currently the official publisher of the Colorado Revised Statutes.1.Using the index is the most common way to find a specific C.R.S. code section on a given topic.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.)Locate the index volumes for this set. These two volumes are located at the end of the set on the shelf.Look in the index volumes to find the index entry for governmental immunity. What information is provided in the index under the subheading for governmental immunity entitled “dangerous condition?” Provide the index entry text as well as the citation. 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: 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.What is the title of this code section?Answer: How many numbered subsections does it contain?Answer: 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. In the listing for “Law reviews,” what is the title and citation of the first article listed as published in The Colorado Lawyer (i.e., Colo. Law.)?Answer: Find the definition located at C.R.S. 24-10-103(1). (Reminder: This citation refers to the Title (i.e., 24), the Article (i.e., 10), and the section number (i.e., 103(1).) Using this citation, answer the following questions:What term is defined by this section of the C.R.S.?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:Once again, locate the code section that you found in question “1.c.” above regarding governmental immunity in the C.R.S.Find the end of the code section and look at the information after the bold text “Source.” The first notation is: L. 71: p. 1206, § 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 1206, in Section 1 of the Session Laws from 1971, you would find the text of the statute as it was originally rmation about the abbreviations and other information often found in the Source notes is located at the front of each C.R.S. volume, at pages vi-ix. Find these pages and scan them briefly.Now look at the Source notes for your code section again. What is the second notation in bold-faced type?Answer: 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. Westlaw Next and Lexis Advance are two such databases. 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:Using Lexis Advance, locate C.R.S. §24-10-106. Through what date is this code section current?Answer: Using Lexis Advance, locate C.R.S. §24-10-106. Among the cases listed under the “Annotation” section is a 1997 Colorado Supreme Court case (“Colo.”) which discusses how “to recover under the ‘dangerous condition’ of the CGIA, plaintiff must show as a threshold jurisdictional matter . . . .” Provide the case name and citation:Answer: Click through the link to this case. On what date was it decided?Answer: What symbol is next to the case’s name and what does it mean?Answer: Cases4.In Question 3 you learned how to use the annotated code to find cases interpreting your code section. These cases are found in the “Annotation” section on Lexis Advance and in the “Notes of Decisions” in Westlaw Next. 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’ website. Publishers collect the individual slip opinions and publish them into reporters, i.e., case reporters. Thomson-Reuters (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. In Question 3.a., describe the citation for the Swieckowski case. 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 Question 3.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, Lexis Advance, LexisNexis Academic, and other services. At this time, open your web browser to Lexis Advance and retrieve the case you located in Question 3.a., the Swieckowski case. 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 the Swieckowski display:a.The status of the case denoted by Shepard’s symbolAnswer: ________________b.The docket number Answer: ___________________c.The most relevant core terms Answer: _________________________The number of headnotes :Answer: _________________ The holding:Answer: ________________________6.Updating Case Law Research Using Lexis ShepardsIt 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, Shepards Citations. While you can still update or Shepardize in print, the online services are much better. Shepards 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.Shepardize the Swieckowski case you located in 3.a. You can do this either by entering the citation into the single search box or if you still have the case open from the previous question by clicking on the Shepard’s symbol located next to the case name.Review the Shepard’s report. What symbol is located at the very top left of the KeyCite report?Answer: ________________________________________________What does the symbol mean? Why did it receive this symbol?Answer: Answer: ________________________________________________How many citing decisions are listed? How many law reviews and treatises are listed?Answer: __________________________________ ................
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