Concise Guide to Legal Research and Writing

Concise Guide to Legal Research and Writing
Author: Deborah E. Bouchoux
Publisher: Aspen Publishing
Total Pages: 634
Release: 2019-09-13
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1543815138

Featuring Deborah E. Bouchoux’s highly regarded assignments, examples, and building-block approach, Concise Guide to Legal Research and Writing, Fourth Edition continues to provide timely coverage of the essential research and writing skills used by today’s paralegals. Designed specifically for paralegal students, this is the ideal text for shorter legal research and writing courses. New to the Fourth Edition: New “Sidebar” feature in all research chapters provides quick tips showing how the material in that chapter applies to computer-assisted legal research systems, such as Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law. Discussion of GovInfo, which provides free public access to official and authenticated publications from all three branches of the federal government. Coverage of new tools used for cite-checking, including EVA and Bestlaw. Discussion of Westlaw Edge, Westlaw’s new research platform. Extensive new coverage of the increasing use of artificial intelligence in legal research and writing. Discussion of new sources that provide free public access to the law, including Harvard’s Caselaw Access Project, CourtListener, and RECAP Project. New sections on preparing email letters and email memoranda, including assignments. All new Research Questions and Internet Legal Research Assignments have been included for each chapter. Professors and students will benefit from: Concise, well-organized text, divided into six main sections: Section I discusses primary authorities Section II covers secondary sources Section III focuses on computer-assisted legal research using Lexis Advance, Westlaw, and the Internet Section IV covers citation form and how to ensure that these sources are still “good law” Section V provides an overview of the legal research process Section VI covers legal writing Pedagogy designed to enhance the accessibility of the material, including helpful charts and diagrams that synthesize complex topics, updated Practice Tips offering realistic and helpful suggestions for workplace success, and Ethics Alerts in every chapter. Targeted and ample exercises help students learn how to use a wide range of research sources. Tips on how to effectively use electronic resources are included throughout the text. Conscientious revision ensures that the book has the most up-to-date material, presented in a readable and accessible format.

Legal Research and Writing for Paralegals

Legal Research and Writing for Paralegals
Author: Deborah E. Bouchoux
Publisher: Aspen Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Legal assistants
ISBN: 9781454831327

A clear, well-organized text for the introductory legal research and writing course, designed specifically for paralegal students.

Impeccable Research, a Concise Guide to Mastering Legal Research Skills

Impeccable Research, a Concise Guide to Mastering Legal Research Skills
Author: Mark Osbeck
Publisher: West Academic Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN: 9781642427967

Unlike conventional legal research books that limit their focus to teaching students how to find and use the various sources of law, this book stresses a systematic, practice-oriented approach to acquiring legal-research skills. It presents a simple yet highly effective research strategy that helps students efficiently solve the types of complex legal-research problems they can expect to encounter in the workplace. In addition, the book includes a section on the various primary and secondary sources of law, and how best to find and use them, as well as a section containing tips for summer interns and associates, and a Trouble-Shooting Guide to help students overcome the occasional obstacles that may crop up in their research projects. The book also includes a detailed Research Checklist for students to use before turning in their work. For these reasons, the book makes an ideal stand-alone text for the first-year legal-research class, as well as an excellent supplementary text for advanced legal-research classes.

Elements of Legal Writing

Elements of Legal Writing
Author: Martha Faulk
Publisher: Pearson
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1996-05
Genre: Legal composition
ISBN: 9780028608396

This easy-to-use primer lays out 135 principles of clear writing, dictation, tone, grammar, syntax, organization, and format. Filled with before-and-after examples and illustrations from the legal world, the book is both a welcome refresher for the practicing lawyer and an indispensable reference for anyone in the legal profession.

Ohio Legal Research

Ohio Legal Research
Author: Sara Sampson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Legal research
ISBN: 9781611637496

Ohio Legal Research provides a concise introduction to Ohio-specific primary authorities and research tools for readers new to legal research or new to researching Ohio law. Ohio Legal Research introduces federal resources alongside their Ohio counterparts, which makes the text useful for an introductory research course that covers both state and federal research. Written with the understanding that research is best learned by practice, this book offers succinct explanation to guide the novice without including so much as to overwhelm. The updated second edition incorporates recent changes to the major electronic research platforms, while maintaining a process focus that will help the reader no matter which platform is available. Updated web addresses also point the researcher to many materials available for free online, including the recently adopted, official electronic reporting system for Ohio case law. Ohio Legal Research includes a fully revised chapter on citation that teaches basic citation form using the major citation manuals and, perhaps most significant to the Ohio practitioner, the recently overhauled Ohio Manual of Citations. This book is part of the Legal Research Series, edited by Suzanne E. Rowe, Director of Legal Research and Writing, University of Oregon School of Law.

A Short and Happy Guide to Advanced Legal Research

A Short and Happy Guide to Advanced Legal Research
Author: ANN W. LONG
Publisher: West Academic Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2020-02-19
Genre:
ISBN: 9781640207486

Legal research can be costly for students and practitioners in two ways: time and money. A SHORT & HAPPY GUIDE TO ADVANCED LEGAL RESEARCH identifies available free and fee-based legal research options as good, cheap and/or fast. This book can streamline the process of legal research involving any subject matter and during any stage of civil litigation. An overview of the litigation analytics and artificial intelligence features available from Bloomberg Law, Lexis Advance, and Westlaw Edge is also included, in the likely event you graduated from law school before 2019. Ann Walsh Long is the Head of Research & Digital Collections/Assistant Professor of Law at the Lincoln Memorial University School of Law. Ann has also worked at the Environmental Protection Agency's Headquarters Library and in four "Big Law" firms. As a former law firm librarian, Ann taught hundreds of summer and new associates how to conduct cost-effective legal research, and advised firms on how best to recover those costs from clients.

Texas Legal Research

Texas Legal Research
Author: Spencer L. Simons
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Legal research
ISBN: 9781611635621

Texas Legal Research, Second Edition, is a practical, process-oriented guide to the skills and resources necessary to research Texas law. The book is designed for teaching first-year students, either as a stand-alone text or in conjunction with a research text focusing on federal law. The book is also suitable for use in advanced legal research courses. Others who will find the book useful include practitioners, paralegals, college students, laypersons, and anyone needing a concise handbook on how to find and use Texas legal materials. The book begins by explaining the nature and types of legal authority. The process of legal research and control of legal research projects are described in the first chapter, with an emphasis on the integral nature of legal research and legal analysis. These concepts are revisited and reinforced throughout the book. The second chapter explains basic principles underlying legal research, factors to consider in choosing whether to search online or in print, and techniques to add power and precision to legal research. Since students often use online research tools from the beginning of their studies, the second chapter also introduces online searching techniques and principles. Research using print and online resources is explained for each type of legal resource throughout the book. The order of coverage of types of legal authority has been substantially changed in the second edition, in order to track the author's recommended research process. Secondary materials are now addressed in chapter 3, followed by chapters devoted to the resources and techniques of constitutional research, statutory research, legislative history research, administrative agency law research, and case law research. The second edition adds an entirely new chapter on Texas local government law research. The historical and governmental roots of Texas legal resources are traced for each type of primary law. Updating techniques are explained in context for each type of legal material and a chapter is devoted to the use of online citators. An appendix explains the basics of legal citation, the use of the Greenbook and the Bluebook, special rules of Texas citation, and the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation. The second edition contains a new appendix discussing techniques for searching directly in the online case databases included in Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law. Most chapters contain tables with step-by-step guides to research in particular types of legal resources, as well as summaries of other critical information. Screenshots and images of research materials are included to illustrate the lessons of the text. For each type of resource, research in federal law is addressed following the discussion of research in Texas law. This book is part of the Legal Research Series, edited by Suzanne E. Rowe, Director of Legal Research and Writing, University of Oregon School of Law.

Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing

Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing
Author: Kathryn Myers
Publisher: Pearson Higher Ed
Total Pages: 744
Release: 2013-07-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 013356407X

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. This comprehensive guide to modern legal research and writing offers a unique balance of traditional print research techniques with newer online methods. Throughout, LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING helps students fully understand the issues they are researching, so they can apply analytical thinking to achieve superior results. Students discover how laws are made, how to decide which law is applicable, how to read the law, how to search legal databases, and how to apply the law in a client's unique situation. The text offers insights for overcoming research obstacles, and provides many examples, figures, and reference checklists. It also offers deep insight into effective writing, including extensive coverage of case briefs, memoranda of law, external briefs, correspondence, and pleadings. A concise review of the writing process addresses everything from pre-writing to grammar and word usage. Extensive pedagogical features include opening scenarios, lists of key terms, case excerpts, media and web resources, and many forms of practice, from Quick Check quizzes to detailed Research Assignments.