Deck 2: Legal Research and Writing

Question 1

A case brief has five parts: the citation, the summary of the facts, the issues, the court's reasoning, and the _____ of the case.

Answer 1

holding

Question 2

Each state has a set of reporters that contain judicial _____ gathered in chronological order.

Answer 2

opinions

Question 3

A legal memorandum should only include statutes.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The American legal system creates laws in two ways: the common law method and the _____ law method.

Question 5

There is only one casebook for every state, and it only includes that state's judicial opinions.

Question 6

An annotation is a short description that is usually no longer than a paragraph.

Question 7

Each state has its own individual set of reporters.

Question 8

A judge's decision is called a holding.

Question 9

If a lawyer loses a case on the trial level, he or she is guaranteed an appeal.

Question 10

When filing for divorce or child custody when the other parent has left the state with the child, time is of no consequence.

Question 11

To follow the doctrine of stare decisis is to follow precedent.

Question 12

When a particular case's legal issues have never been heard by a state's courts, the case is called a case of last impression.

Question 13

Judicial jurisdiction over subject matter relating to custody issues is not necessarily exclusive, and under certain conditions, more than one state can have subject matter jurisdiction.

Question 14

Law that is created within a state's elected bodies and Congress is called statutory law.

Question 15

To ensure that any statutes and cases he or she has found are still valid law, a researcher should use a set of books known as _____.

Question 16

Once a case is overturned, it is removed from the reporters.

Question 17

When a judge has determined that present law does not adequately apply to a case before the court, the judge may create law by deciding the case in a way that has not previously been done. This process is called common law.

Question 18

A particular state's case and statutory law are known as secondary authority within that state.

Question 19

CALR stands for _____.

Question 20

Supplemental pocket parts and advance sheets are recent additions and changes to the state codes.

Question 21

When there is no primary authority to support a case, one can refer to another type of authority called _____ authority.

Question 22

Legal articles written by legal experts and law students are gathered in law _____.

Question 23

The judge or judges who agree with the majority but choose to further clarify their reasoning write what is called a/an _____ opinion.

Question 24

A casebook usually contains _____ judicial opinions.

A) appellate court-level
B) trial court-level
C) superior court-level
D) Supreme Court-level
E) appellate court- and Supreme Court-level

Question 25

The next highest level after the trial court level is called the _____ level.

Question 26

A party can appeal a case to the highest state court if he or she can show that _____ at both the trial level and the appellate level.

A) a legal error was made
B) stare decisis existed
C) mens rea existed
D) not enough evidence was presented
E) None of these choices is correct.

Question 27

The judge or judges who do not agree with the majority write what is called a/an _____ opinion.

Question 28

A case digest is

A) an alphabetically arranged book of judicial opinions from cases pertaining to a particular subject
B) an attaché case used by a lawyer to neatly carry his or her paperwork
C) a diary or journal that a lawyer or paralegal uses to keep track of the status of his or her various clients' cases
D) kept in a courtroom and lists the scheduled cases for each day

Question 29

A short description of a case or statute is called a/an

A) annotation
B) code
C) legal citation
D) legal citation or an annotation
E) None of these choices is correct.

Question 30

What is the main reason why someone should Shepardize a case?

A) to see if the case has been overruled, reversed, explained, affirmed, or distinguished by other cases
B) to find other cases that mention the case
C) for practice
D) None of these choices is correct.

Question 31

_____ is a standard of proof that is not beyond a reasonable doubt.

Question 32

Common law is

A) judge-made law
B) law that is commonly used in daily life, such as driving laws
C) law that was established in early American life
D) the same as Constitutional law

Question 33

When the issue in a case is being heard for the very first time in a particular state, the case is called

A) a case of first impression
B) voir dire
C) stare decisis
D) Lord Mansfield's rule

Question 34

The case and statutory law of a particular state are known as

A) primary authority
B) statutes
C) codes
D) secondary authority

Question 35

Regional reporters are

A) books that cover appellate and supreme court cases for a particular geographical area
B) media and news personnel who cover legal cases
C) lawyers and paralegals who have expertise in the laws of a particular geographical area
D) statistical reports for a particular geographical area

Question 36

A legal citation

A) directs a legal researcher to where a complete case is located in a reporter
B) quotes famous cases
C) quotes famous judges
D) briefly summarizes a case

Question 37

In the American common law system, a judge is responsible for following precedent; this concept is known as the

A) doctrine of stare decisis
B) doctrine of stars decision
C) doctrine of precedent
D) doctrine of precedent decisis

Question 38

Written judicial opinions are gathered in chronological order in books called

A) reporters
B) codes
C) digests
D) legal encyclopedias
E) legal treatises

Question 39

After the plaintiff initially files his or her complaint, the defendant files

A) an answer
B) a deposition
C) interrogatories
D) Shepardizing
E) None of these choices is correct.

Question 40

The Socratic method of learning the law involves

A) All of these choices are correct.
B) using a casebook
C) reading appellate opinions and preparing to discuss them in class
D) asking other learners questions about cases and analyzing their answers
E) reading appellate-level judicial opinions from all over the United States

Question 41

The steps in case briefing include

A) All of these choices are correct.
B) determining the key facts
C) reading the case carefully
D) finding the bottom-line legal issues
E) determining the holding

Question 42

In researching to prepare a memorandum of law, one should look

A) All of these choices are correct.
B) in a digest
C) for case law
D) at statutes
E) at a previously prepared memorandum regarding the same issues

Question 43

In the American common law system, when does a judge NOT have to follow precedent?

A) when the precedent is based on improper legal reasoning
B) when a party is improperly represented by an attorney
C) when the judge believes the precedent does not properly interpret the United States Constitution
D) when the precedent is old-fashioned
E) when the precedent is based on improper legal reasoning and when the judge believes the precedent does not properly interpret the United States Constitution

Question 44

A parallel citation

A) directs the researcher to the same case in another reporter
B) provides the citation for a similar case in another state
C) tells the researcher the name of the case
D) leads the researcher to the complete case in the reporter
E) None of these choices is correct.

Question 45

Examples of computer-assisted legal research (CALR) resources include

A) WESTLAW and Lexis-Nexis
B) WESTLAW but not Lexis-Nexis
C) supplemental pocket parts
D) Lexis-Nexis but not WESTLAW
E) WESTLAW and supplemental pocket parts

Question 46

What is Shepardizing?

A) checking to make sure a case on point is still good law
B) removing an outdated statute
C) overruling a case
D) the last step in legal research
E) None of these choices is correct.

Question 47

In the _____ method of teaching the law, a professor leads a classroom discussion by asking students about cases they have read.

A) Socratic
B) Aristotlean
C) Platonic
D) Sophoclean
E) None of these choices is correct.