Welcome to the Case Law Finding Online Exercise



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Welcome to the Case Law Finding LexisNexis Certification Exercise.

Why research cases?

Under the doctrine of stare decisis ("to stand by things decided")or precedent, previously decided cases serve as a model for resolution of future disputes involving similar legal principles or fact patterns.

Following the doctrine of stare decisis, legal researchers cite to cases:

• In support of their arguments.

• To convince the court that the issues or facts presented in their cases should be decided in the same way as the earlier cases.

• To argue that the facts or issues presented in their cases are sufficiently different to warrant different treatment.

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Traditionally, cases are published, or reported, in a series of books called reporters.

Reporters contain the written decisions of the court. They do not contain transcripts of arguments or trials, nor do they contain the briefs submitted by the parties.

• Reporters are organized in chronological order by date of decision.

• Reporters are published by geographical location (e.g. a state reporter) or by jurisdiction (e.g. all United States District Court decisions).

• Most jurisdictions have an "official" reporter that is governmentally approved.

For example, opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court are "officially" reported in the United States Reports, which is published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Commercial publishers are "unofficial" reporters and usually publish cases before the official versions.

The text of the court's opinion is the same, but each publisher adds proprietary editorial matter. The citation given by one of these publishers is called a parallel citation.

A case citation usually contains six elements:

1. The case name.

2. The reporter volume number for the case.

3. The reporter abbreviation for the case.

4. The beginning page number of a case.

5. The name of the court or the jurisdiction where the case was decided.

6. The date of the decision.

The precise construction of the case citation is governed by the citation system adopted by the courts in a particular jurisdiction.

The two most common citation guides are the Uniform System of Citation (the Bluebook) and the ALWD Citation Manual.

There are three methods that you can use to find cases using the LexisNexis services:

1. By citation.

2. By name.

3. By topic.

Method #1 - Finding a Case By Its Citation

The easiest way to retrieve a case on LexisNexis is by its citation:

1. Click the Get a Document tab.

2. Click the Citation tab.

3. Type the citation in the open field of the template.

Note: You may use the case's official citation or unofficial/parallel citations.

4. Click the Full Text radio button.

5. Click Get.

Before moving on to the next page of this exercise, retrieve 418 U.S. 323 using the steps outlined above.

Finding Cases By Citation

If you successfully retrieved 418 U.S. 323, you should now be looking at the United States Supreme Court case, Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.

From the top of the page, let's examine the structure of the case:

The caption of the case includes the names of the parties to the case, the court deciding the case, citations to the case from both official and unofficial reporters, and the date of the decision.

The case's history - both prior and subsequent - tells you where the case came from (typically this includes the citation to the opinion of the lower court that is being appealed), and where the case may have gone after the decision (typically this includes any further appeals or proceedings on remand).

The disposition of the case is the court's ruling or decision.

A summary of the case is written by legal editors at LexisNexis and contains valuable information about the case including an overview of the procedural posture, facts, issues, and holding in the case.

Additionally, you may find LexisNexis Headnotes, displaying a section that identify the major points of law found in the opinion and are expressed in the actual language of the court.

LexisNexis Headnotes appear in the Full view format when the Show Concepts link is active (click Hide Concepts if you don't want them displayed).

If you are scrolling through a U.S. Supreme Court case like Gertz v. Robert Welch, you will find a syllabus, which is a short summary of the opinion highlighting the Court's analysis and the reasoning underlying its decision. You must make sure that you do not cite to the syllabus, since it is not written by the Court and holds no precedential value.

Next, you will find the names of counsel who argued the case before the appellate court. You will also find the names of the judges or justices who heard the case.

Immediately before the text of the opinion begins, you will find the opinion author.

Following this preliminary information, you will find the full text of the opinions filed by the court. The majority opinion is always first, followed by any concurring or dissenting opinions.

Method #2 - Finding A Case By Party Names

1. Click the Get a Document tab.

2. Click the Party Name tab.

3. Type the first case name in the first open field of the template. Use the tab key on your keyboard to move to the second party name field and type the other party name if you have it.

Note: You do not need to include both party names. If you know only one party name, type it in the first space and leave the other space blank.

4. Select a jurisdiction for your search using the radio buttons and pull-down selections provided.

5. Click the down arrow under Restrict by Date at the bottom of the page to select a date range. The default is no date restriction.

You should use a date restriction if you know that there are likely to be multiple cases with the same name (particularly if you only know the name of one party in your case).

6. Click Search to retrieve the case.

Note: You may retrieve more than one case. Scroll through the list of results to find the case you are looking for. Once located, click on the case name to link to the text of the opinion.

If you only retrieve one opinion, you will likely see it in KWIC™ format. To view the full text of the opinion, simply click on FULL at the top left of the page.

Before moving to the next page of this exercise, use the steps outline above to retrieve the U.S. Supreme Court case, Bush v. Gore.

Because there are seven cases from the U.S. Supreme Court with this name, review each opinion until you determine which one you want to view.

Method #3 - Finding Cases By Topic

Use Lexis® Search Advisor to find cases when you have information about the case topic.

You have two options in Lexis Search Advisor:

1. Search for a legal topic using your own search terms.

2. Explore legal topics from the list of legal topics prepared by LexisNexis® legal editors.

To search for a legal topic using your own search terms:

1. In the open field under Option 1 - Find a Legal Topic, type search terms relevant to your legal topic.

2. Click Find.

3. Review the list of displayed topics and select the topic most relevant to your research issue.

To explore the hierarchy of legal topics:

1. Select a topic under Option 2: Explore Legal Topics.

2. Continue to click to select the displayed sub-topics relevant to your research issue.

3. Click on the Analytical Materials tab and select specific source.

4. Or click on the Cases tab, select a jurisdiction from the drop down menu, then click Go to retrieve all cases for this topic. You can also choose to type in search terms in the open field then click Search for a more targeted search.

Before moving onto the next page, use Option 1: Find a Legal Topic to find topics relating to the issue of whether a wife can be forced to testify against her husband in a RICO case.

Use the search terms wife and testify.

Finding Cases By Topic - Continued

When the list of relevant classifications appears, review the list and determine which topic addresses your research issue.

After you identify the relevant classification, click on the link to select related materials.

Note: You must click on the topic with the page icon.

Finding Cases By Topic - Continued

After selecting a legal topic, you can find relevant material by:

1. Linking to Analytical Materials (e.g. law review articles).

2. Searching in case law.

To retrieve cases on your topic:

1. Click the Cases tab.

2. Select a jurisdiction using the drop-down menu in Step 1.

3. Click Go if you want to retrieve all headnotes and additional cases for your topic in Step 2.

4. Or in Step 2, you can be more specific in your topical search. Select your search mode (either Terms and Connectors or Natural Language) using the radio buttons at the top of the search field.

5. Type your search terms in the open field.

6. Select a date restriction (optional) to limit your search by date of decision.

7. Click Search.

Before moving to the next page, use the steps above to find federal criminal cases, using Terms and Connectors with terms such as RICO and spouse. Do not restrict the dates of your results.

Your search results display in the CITE viewing format, and list the federal cases that contain your search terms.

To view a case, simply click on its name.

For example, click on U.S. v. Long in your list of results to link into the text of the opinion for this case.

Finding Cases By Topic - Continued

Often the list of cases generated by your search will be very long.

You can use the FOCUS™ feature to sift through the cases and identify those that are on-point with your issue.

The FOCUS feature spotlights words or phrases within the documents in your search results or within individual documents.

The FOCUS feature works the same way whether you are searching your entire answer set or a specific opinion.

As you skim through the opinion, you will notice that the term RICO appears many times.

To find the portion of the opinion that discusses spousal testimony:

1. Click FOCUS at the top of the page.

2. Type testimony in the open field of the FOCUS template.

3. Click FOCUS.

4. Click on the Term arrow at the bottom of the page. Click the arrow several times to move through your FOCUS terms until you find legal discussion about compelling spouses to testify.

This method allows you to quickly isolate the relevant portions of the document you are reviewing.

Now to put your knowledge to the test.

To test your understanding of the skills and concepts introduced in this tutorial, please complete the following exercise (3 screens).

1. Retrieve the following case: 468 U.S. 705. [pic]

a. What is the name of this case?

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b. What was the decision or holding in this case?

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c. Who argued this case for the government?

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d. Who wrote the majority opinion of the Court?

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e. Were any concurring opinions written for this case? If so, by whom?

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f. Were any dissenting opinions written? If so, by whom?

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2. Retrieve the U.S. Supreme Court case, Katz v. United States, that was decided during the second half of 1967. (Hint: try using a date restriction) [pic]

a. What is the citation to this case?

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b. How did you retrieve the full text of this opinion?

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3. Using Lexis® Search Advisor construct a search for cases that will help you answer the question of whether the police’s warrantless use of a thermal imaging device on a person’s private home constitutes an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. [pic]

a. What search did you use to find a legal topic using Option 1: Find A Legal Topic?

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b. Which Lexis Search Advisor topic did you choose from the resulting list?

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c. What was the search you used to retrieve case law?

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d. What jurisdiction did you choose to search within?

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e. What are the names and citations of three cases you located that could help you answer the question posed above?

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To complete LexisNexis Certification turn this in to one of your LexisNexis reps during their office hours and pick up the remaining take home packets or visit myschool. to finish Certification On-Line.

Good Luck.

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Parts of a Legal Citation

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