The Process of Legal Research - 2

West’s Instructional Aids Series

How to Use Print and Online Legal ResourcesTo Your Best Advantage

Contents

• Introduction• From Facts to Issue• Controlling Statute• Expanding Research• Identifying Cases to Cite• Ensuring Currency and Validity of Law• Conclusion

Expanding Research

Contents

Having found the controlling statute, but being unable to efficiently utilize the large number of annotations, you might turn to a secondary source that will analyze and synthesize your issue. At this point you have two choices: you could use the terms of art and language of the black letter law and :

– go to a print secondary source and use the table of contents and index to focus your research.

– go online and search for documents containing the terms of art. (Going on line prematurely can be an expensive choice, especially if you have easy access to the print resources.)

Expanding Research

• American Law Reports (ALR) articles offer detailed analysis of a narrow issue of law and provide many citations to relevant primary law.

• In the print ALR Index (T-Z) ALR 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and Federal, under the listing for VICARIOUS LIABILITY – Assume you looked first for Employer, found Employment, and

were referred to Labor and employment under this section– The Labor and Employment section has a promising entry:

• Intentional wrong, employer’s liability for assault, theft, or similar intentional wrong committed by employee at home or business of customer (13 ALR5th 217)

Print ResourcesExpanding Research

Employment

Labor and employment

VICARIOUS LIABILITY Relevant article

Expanding Research

• In the the print ALR Index (O-S) ALR 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, Federal

• Under SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT AND AUTHORITY, you see– Assault

• Employer’s liability for assault, theft, or similar intentional wrong committed by employee at home or business of customer (13 ALR 217)

• You found the same article under both VICARIOUS LIABILITY and SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT AND AUTHORITY in the ALR Index.

SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT AND AUTHORITY Assault

Expanding Research

• Be sure to check in the ALR Indexes’ pocket parts for recent ALR articles.• There are three recent articles listed in the pocket part of the O-S Index under

SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT AND AUTHORITY, but none deal with the specific issue of an intentional act of an employee within the scope of employment.

Expanding Research

SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT AND AUTHORITY

• This is the first page of the article found in the ALR Index that seems most relevant.

• It is a summary of the issue, with reference to the lead case that initiated the article.

• The full text of the lead case can be found at the end of the volume.

• The cite for the article is 13 ALR 5th 217. The case is reported at 540 So. 2d 363. The full text of the case is also available in the ALR, at 13 ALR5th 962.

Smith v. Orkin Exterminating Co. isfully reported at page 962, infra.

Smith v. Orkin Exterminating Co.,

540 So. 2d 363 (La Ct.App. 1989).

Expanding Research

ALR article finding aids, such as the Table of Contents, Research References, and Index follow the summary of the article.

Table of Contents

Index

Assaults 3-9, 12, 13

Research References

§ 13

Expanding Research

• In the Article Outline, the phrase respondeat superior is used under the subtopic of NONSEXUAL ASSAULTS under BUSINESS OF CUSTOMER. You have not encountered this phrase before.

• Check Black’s Law Dictionary for a definition of respondeat superior.

Notice that the article uses thephrase Respondeat superior,rather than vicarious liability.

NONSEXUAL ASSAULTS under BUSINESSOF CUSTOMER is the section of the article that seems most relevant to your issue.

Article Outline

Expanding Research

Blacks Law Dictionary

Black’s Law Dictionary contains the follow definition of respondeat superior:

“This maxim means that a master is liable in certain cases for the wrongful acts of his servant, and a principal for those of his agent…”

Expanding Research

You should consider respondeat superior as an alternative to vicarious liability in your research. (If you had begun looking at RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR in the ALR Index, you would have found the same article under the subheading, Intentional wrong.)

Intentional wrong

RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR

Expanding Research

Several of the ALR article’s finding aids have led to the most relevant section of the article:

III. Business of Customer B. Nonsexual Assaults §13 Respondeat superior

(a) Theory established or supportable (b) Theory not established

Expanding Research

• The article includes a Jurisdictional Table of Cited Statutes and Cases. • McDermott v. American Brewing is the only Louisiana case in the

table that deals with nonsexual assault of a customer at the place of the customer’s business.

Louisiana cases

Jurisdictional Table

McDermott v. American Brewing Co (1901) 105 La 124, 29 So. 498 - § 13 [b] (reference to the section of the article where McDermott is discussed).

Expanding Research

§ 13(b)

• Be sure to check the pocket part of the ALR volume for recent relevant case law.

• Pocket parts inserted into the back cover periodically supplement the materials in the bound volume.

13 ALR 5th 217

There is a number tocall for very recent

case summaries.

There are no entriesin the pocket part

for § 13.

Expanding Research

Online Research

• You could have searched first for the terms of art on Westlaw. In this session, you might want to supplement and confirm your print product research in the ALR database.

• Whether you look for the relevant article(s) by using the print ALR index or by searching Westlaw is a matter of choice and economics.

• Note: Many people find it difficult to read with total comprehension detailed online articles. If you prefer to look for documents online, you might want to print them and then read, highlight and make notes on the printed document(s).

Expanding Research

• Database: ALR

• Terms and Connectors search: ti(“vicarious liability” “respondeat superior” & employ!)

• Result: seven documents. Two are in ALR INDEX TO ANNOTATIONS (articles). One is under VICARIOUS LIABILITY, the other under RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR. Both lead to the same article you found in the print ALR indexes.

Link to article

Intentional wrong, employer’s liability for assault, theft, or similar intentional wrong committed by employee at home or business of customer

Expanding Research

• This is the same article you found using the ALR print index. • Note the link to Smith v. Orkin. The full text of the opinion is

available in the Louisiana State Cases database (LA-CS).

EMPLOYER’S LIABILITY FOR ASSAULT, THEFT, OR SIMILAR INTENTIONAL WRONGCOMMITTED BY EMPLOYEE AT HOME OR BUSINESS OF CUSTOMER.

Expanding Research

• A Natural Language search is often used as a check against missing relevant articles that were not retrieved by a Terms and Connectors search.

• Database: ALR• Natural Language search: employer "vicarious liability" (“respondeat

superior”) for assault ("intentional act" "intentional tort")• One of the first

documents retrieved is the same document you found using the ALR print index and the Terms and Connectors search.

• You can now proceed with confidence that this article will provide detailed analysis and citations to enable you to efficiently expand your research.

Expanding Research

• The online article has many of the same finding aids and research resources as the print article.

• Document Outline on the Links for tab links to an outline of the article.

• The Document Outline leads you to § 13, dealing with nonsexual assaults by employee in the business of a customer.

Expanding Research

§ 13

• The Citing Reference function of KeyCite is an easy and effective way of expanding your online research.

• KeyCite Citing References lists cases, administrative materials and secondary sources that have cited a case or statute.

• Citing References for cases can be limited by issue (headnote), locate terms, jurisdiction, date, document type, or depth of treatment.

• Citing References for statutes can be limited by issue (notes of decisions), locate terms, jurisdiction, date, or document type.

Expanding Research

• McDermott v. American Brewing Co. is the only Louisiana case discussed in § 13 of the ALR article. It was decided in 1901 and you would like to check for more recent cases.

• Click KeyCite Citing Reference on the Links for tab.• McDermott has been cited in twenty-two documents.

Citing References link

Expanding Research

1915

Limit KeyCite Display

• At least 1915 documents have cited Louisiana Statute 2320.• Click Limit KeyCite Display button to whittle citing documents

down to the ones that will be of most use.• Here we have limited the display to the issue discussed under Topic

29 of the Notes of Decisions for § 2320, Unauthorized acts of employee, course and scope of employment.

Topic 29

Cases

• We have also limited the KeyCite Display to cases.

• Click Apply.

• We have limited the KeyCite Display to the six of the original 1915 documents that will be of most use to us.

Apply

6 of 1915

End ofThe Process of Legal Research - 2