Deck 4: Finding the Law: Legal Research

Question 1

Which part of a case states the law relied upon by the court in the analysis or reasoning component of the case?

A) Facts
B) Issues
C) Rules
D) Judicial history

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What type of secondary source is the American Bar Association Journal?

A) Legal dictionary
B) Legal encyclopedia
C) Treatise
D) Legal periodical

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following are not primary sources?

A) Constitutions
B) Statutes
C) Cases
D) Periodicals

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Before comparing your facts and issues with case law, it is important you properly identify:

A) important precedent.
B) facts and issues in your client's situation.
C) judicial history.
D) the question presented.
E) explanatory facts.

Question 5

Which of the following is an encyclopedia?

A) Corpus Juris Secundum
B) American Jurisprudence 2d
C) California Jurisprudence 3d
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 6

California state cases are found in which regional reporter?

A) Northeast Reporter
B) Pacific Reporter
C) Southern Reporter
D) Northwest Reporter

Question 7

Relevant facts are sometimes called:

A) key facts.
B) focus facts.
C) explanatory facts.
D) important.
E) precedent.

Question 8

Statutes are enacted by which branch of the government?

A) Executive branch
B) Judicial branch
C) Legislative branch
D) All of the above

Question 9

Stare decisis means:

A) case law.
B) reporter.
C) similarities.
D) precedent.
E) review.

Question 10

What is a question that must be decided by a court?

A) A relevant fact
B) An issue
C) An explanatory fact
D) An unnecessary fact

Question 11

If you are unfamiliar with the area of law you are researching, you should begin the research with:

A) case law.
B) statutes.
C) secondary sources.
D) primary sources.
E) newspapers.

Question 12

What types of sources explain the law and aid in finding the law?

A) Primary sources
B) Secondary sources
C) Tertiary sources
D) Cases

Question 13

The official reporter for U.S. Supreme Court cases is:

A) Supreme Court Reporter.
B) United States Reports.
C) Lawyer's Edition.
D) The Supreme Court Web Site.
E) Westlaw.

Question 14

Which of the following are not secondary sources?

A) Treatises
B) Ordinances
C) Digests
D) Periodicals
E) Form books

Question 15

Which part of a case explains the prior proceedings and what happened in the lower court?

A) Facts
B) Issues
C) Rules
D) Judicial history

Question 16

We look to statutes to provide:

A) concise statements of the law.
B) a detailed summary of the law.
C) summaries of important cases.
D) guidance for the public.
E) references to secondary sources.

Question 17

Information in a legal encyclopedia is arranged:

A) alphabetically.
B) chronologically.
C) numerically.
D) randomly.

Question 18

What type of facts help the researcher understand what happened?

A) Relevant facts
B) Explanatory facts
C) Unnecessary facts
D) All of the above

Question 19

Both federal and state court cases are published in:

A) reporters.
B) statutes.
C) codes.
D) All of the above

Question 20

Some secondary sources are referred to as:

A) annotations.
B) dictionaries.
C) finding tools.
D) research manuals.
E) indexes.

Question 21

Statutes are laws enacted by the legislature.

Question 22

Case law is a collection of reported cases.

Question 23

Once the issues are clearly stated, it is time to focus on the facts when conducting legal research.

Question 24

Primary sources include case law, statutes, constitutions, and dictionaries.

Question 25

Secondary sources explain the law and aid in finding the law.

Question 26

State court cases are published in state and regional reporters.

Question 27

Prosser on Torts, which provides detailed information on most civil topics, is a legal treatise that reviews a special field of law.

Question 28

Form books are filled with sample forms and explanations on how and when to use the forms.

Question 29

A digest is an index to statutes.

Question 30

Statutes and regulations are examples of primary legal research sources.

Question 31

Facts should be sorted into the following three categories: relevant, explanatory, and unnecessary.

Question 32

Encyclopedias are a secondary source.

Question 33

Facts fall into one of three categories: relevant, explanatory, and unnecessary.

Question 34

Precedent is an example set by the decision of an earlier court for similar cases or similar legal questions which arise in later cases.

Question 35

A relevant fact is a fact that is tied directly to the client's legal question.

Question 36

Rules are the primary law relied upon by the court in the analysis or reasoning component of the case.

Question 37

An issue is a question that must be decided by a court.

Question 38

There is only one reporter for federal and state court cases.

Question 39

All statutes are called codes.

Question 40

The case brief is a short summary of a case.

Question 41

The Pacific Reporter, a set of published volumes of cases by courts in a specific region of the United States, is known as a regional ______.

Question 42

_______ facts help the researcher understand what happened.

Question 43

Why would a legal researcher want to use a subscription based legal research system like Westlaw or Lexis rather than free Internet sources?

Question 44

Explain the different reporters for U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Question 45

In a citation for a case, the _____ reporter is always listed first and the citations that follow are the unofficial publications.

Question 46

Cases published by Thomson-Reuters/West (Westlaw) have _____ numbers that can be looked up in a digest to locate other cases that involve the same topic.

Question 47

The two basic types of sources in all legal collections consist of primary sources and _____ sources.

Question 48

Case law contains each of the following components: facts, judicial history, issues, and ______.

Question 49

Provide examples of primary sources and secondary sources.

Question 50

What are the different components of case law?

Question 51

What are the different factual categories into which facts often fall?

Question 52

You are working as a paralegal for the U.S. Department of Justice and the supervising attorney has asked you to conduct legal research on the Double Jeopardy Clause and write an inter-office memorandum. Discuss which legal sources you would consult for the project.

Question 53

A removable supplement to a volume of statutory law that includes all changes or additions to the material contained in the hardbound volume is known as a ______ part.

Question 54

Explain the differences between primary and secondary sources.

Question 55

A legal _____ is a good starting place for legal research to help understand legal vocabulary.

Question 56

A legal encyclopedia is arranged _____.

Question 57

The two large national legal encyclopedias are Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.) and American _____ 2d.