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The law student rarely needs to ask this question: your professor and casebook editors have already determined which cases you need to study in order to pass your law school exams.
In the law office (including law school clinical programs and clerkships), however, it is a different story. It is likely no one will identify the cases you need to read. You will probably be given only a fact situation (and, if you're lucky, a legal issue). It will then be up to you to separate the handful of relevant cases from the hundreds of thousands of irrelevant ones.
Unless you are already familiar with the area(s) of law that pertain to your issue, you will need background information before you start searching for cases. The following secondary sources are ideal for quickly familiarizing yourself with a topic.
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You might start with a multi volume legal encyclopedia such as American Jurisprudence 2d(Am Jur®2d) or Corpus Juris Secundum® (CJS®). These publications cover the entire body of American law. They also cite a large number of published cases supporting a given point of law, and they are updated annually. Both provide West topics and key numbers that you can use in case digests published by West (see below).
American Law Reports (ALR®) contains cases followed by exhaustive "annotations": encyclopedic essays on the general topic discussed in each case. Topics usually deal with new, changing, or unsettled areas of the law. These annotations contain many citations to cases and secondary materials. ALR is updated annually with supplementary inserts.
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Nutshells-For general exposure to a topic, use an easy-to-read condensed text such as one of West's Nutshell Series®.
Hornbooks-For a more detailed treatment of the subject, including suggested Westlaw queries, go to one of West's Hornbook Series® such as Prosser and Keeton's Hornbook on Torts, 5th ed. or Friedenthal, Kane and Miller's Hornbook on Civil Procedure, 3rd ed.
The Concepts and Insights Series from Foundation Press provides concise conceptual insights into areas of the law crucial to the understanding of a topic.
Not only do these secondary materials give you the background you need to research primary authority (like case reporters) effectively, but they are also a good initial source of citations to relevant cases, statutes and other materials.
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Key Number Digests are compilations of headnotes created by West attorney-editors. The headnotes are assigned West topic headings and key numbers from the West Key Number System®, West's outline of American law, and printed in a digest, a comprehensive collection of headnotes.
If you have a relevant topic or key number, or you know what legal terms and concepts courts have used when discussing your issue, you can conduct an exhaustive search in West's key number digests for published opinions discussing points of law touching on your issue.
You can also use Westlaw as you would the digest outline: look for topics and key numbers by using westlaw.com's Custom Digest Feature. The Custom Digest can be accessed by clicking Key Numbers & Digest under the More pull-down list at the right end of the toolbar. The Custom Digest contains a comprehensive outline you can expand or contract as necessary. You can then search for cases containing one or more specific topics or key numbers. In the alternative, you can search click the Most Cited Cases link that follows each Key Number in the Digest field of a West reported case. See your Westlaw Academic Account Manager or a student representative for details. Westlaw is available at lawschool.westlaw.com.
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Common Questions
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