Statutory Research: In Print and Online

Print Research Aids

• An alphabetical General Index aids you in finding relevant statute sections.

– The index has “access words” that cross-reference formal index headings.

– The Index references the relevant title(s) and section(s) (statutes).

• The Popular Name Table, in the last index volume, helps determine where a public law was codified.

Popular NameTable

Sarah Jones has finished law school, passed the bar, and found a job with a legal aid service. Four years of college

and three years of law school have run her student loan debt to well over $100,000 and her salary will never

stretch to make the payments on that amount.

Sarah is considering filing for bankruptcy.

Could this extreme measure solve Sarah’s problem?

Finding Relevant Statutes Online: The Find Service

There are several different but effective ways to find the Exceptions to Discharge in Bankruptcy statute (section).

• If Sarah knows the citation of the discharge statute, she can simply type it in the Find this document by citation: text box on the Law School page or click the Find link on the toolbar.

11 USCA 523

Find

Find

Find a State Statute by Citation• You can type the following in the Find this document by

citation: text box:

– Enter xx st nnn.nn (where xx stands for the state’s two-letter postal abbreviation and nnn.nn stands for the citation number)

– Example: mn st 313.01 (do not include paragraph letter or number, as in 313.01(a)(4))

• For code states or other states with irregular numbering, simply type xx st in the Find this document by citation: text box. See next screen.

State Statute Template

• A template for the state’s statutes is displayed.

• Just type in the statute number in the appropriate code’s text box.

• Click GO beside the text box and you will retrieve the state statute, in this case, Texas Agricultural Code, section 41.002.

Documents in Sequence If Sarah isn’t sure she has retrieved the correct section but

believes she is very close to it, she could use the Documents in Sequence feature by selecting Documents in Sequence under the Tool link at the bottom of the right frame.

Tools

Docs. in Seq.

Documents in Sequence• Now Sarah will be viewing 11 USCA 524.

• The Doc in Seq arrows at the bottom of the right frame allow her to move forward or backward, statute by statute, just as if she were paging through the statutes in print.

Docs in Seq

• Sarah could access the Table of Contents service which is

available for each statutory database on Westlaw and open it to the desired section.

• The Table of Contents service is also a great way for Sarah to browse the sections around the desired statute to see if any have relevance to her situation.

Table of Contents for Statutes

TOC link on Links for Tab

11 USCA 523

• If Sarah knows that Title 11 is the bankruptcy title and she needs the exceptions to discharge statute, the following field restricted search using terms and connectors would be effective:

ca,pr(“title 11” & exception)

• This search retrieves 11 USCA 523. The terms can be in either the caption or the prelim fields.

Prelim (pr) field

Caption (ca)Field

A Caption and Prelim Field Search

A Search for a Key Number Case Law Digest Field

• Sarah could try a Terms and Connector search in the digest field of a case law database. (Here we will use the ALLFEDS database.)

• For example:

di(discharg! /p "student loan”)

• This search yields many cases and several relevant key numbers related to 11 USCA 523.

• Sarah notices that one headnote states that undue hardship is the only basis for discharging student loans.

• The key number 51K3351.10(1) assigned to this headnote links to other cases discussing the same point of law. Sarah will have to examine these cases to determine if her situation can be considered a “hardship.”

• There are also references to the controlling statute(s).

51k3351.10(1)

11 USCA 523

A Natural Language Search

• Sarah could run a Natural Language search, which can be very effective in annotated statute database, in that.

• The looser structure of a natural language search will often be more successful than a terms and connectors search in capturing the unpredictable language of a statute.

• The search:

can student loans be discharged in bankruptcy

retrieves the Notes of Decisions shown on the next slide.

11 USCA 523 is the first document displayed. The “best” portion of the statue is in the annotations in the familiar language of the courts. Sarah retrieved this document even though the text of the statute does not mention a student loan exception to discharge in bankruptcy. (The text of the statute uses “educational benefit overpayment or loan”.)

educational benefit overpayment or loan

Student loan

Student loan

Student loan

Student loan

Using KeySearch to Find Statutes and Cases

• If Sarah is unfamiliar with both the language of the law and key numbers, the KeySearch service could be the place to start research.

• You can access KeySearch from anywhere on Westlaw by clicking KeySearch on the toolbar.

Access Key Search

Using KeySearch to Find Statutes and Cases

• KeySearch divides the law into widely recognized areas of the law.

• Bankruptcy is one such area.

• The opened Bankruptcy folder reveals the bankruptcy subtopics, one of which is Discharge.

• If Sarah opens the Discharge subfolder and she will find Educational Loans.

KeySearch

• Sarah selects the All Federal Cases (ALLFEDS) database.

• She could click the View/Edit Full Query link to see the pre-formulated query.

• Notice that the query is a combination of words and key numbers.

• Sarah could add additional terms.

• This is one of the cases retrieved from the ALLFEDS database and it talks about discharging student loans on the basis of hardship.

• There is also a reference to the discharge statute.

Hardship

Hardship

11 USCA 523(a)(8)