CP Legal Research and Writing 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the difference between primary and secondary legal sources?
- Primary are more recent, secondary are older
- Primary sources are the law itself while secondary sources explain or analyze the law (Correct answer)
- Primary are federal, secondary are state
- Primary are by judges, secondary by legislators
Correct answer: Primary sources are the law itself while secondary sources explain or analyze the law
Primary sources are binding legal authorities constituting the law; secondary sources are persuasive materials that explain the law.
Primary sources include constitutions, statutes, regulations, and case law. Secondary sources include legal encyclopedias, treatises, law reviews, Restatements, and ALR. Effective research begins with secondary sources for overview before moving to primary sources for binding authority.
Question 2: What does Shepardizing or KeyCiting a case mean?
- Summarizing key facts
- Verifying a case is still good law by checking its subsequent history and treatment (Correct answer)
- Filing with the clerk
- Creating a case brief
Correct answer: Verifying a case is still good law by checking its subsequent history and treatment
Shepardizing (LexisNexis) or KeyCiting (Westlaw) checks whether a case has been overruled, distinguished, or otherwise affected.
These citator services reveal direct history (appeals, reversals), treatment by later courts (followed, distinguished, overruled), and other citing sources. Signal indicators provide quick assessment: red flag means no longer good law, yellow means caution. Failing to check citations is a serious research error.
Question 3: What is an interoffice memorandum in legal writing?
- A letter to opposing counsel
- An objective internal document analyzing legal issues and predicting outcomes (Correct answer)
- A court brief
- A client meeting summary
Correct answer: An objective internal document analyzing legal issues and predicting outcomes
An interoffice memorandum objectively analyzes legal issues and provides honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses.
An interoffice memorandum includes: heading, question presented, brief answer, statement of facts, discussion section analyzing law applied to facts, and conclusion. Unlike a court brief which advocates, this document must honestly assess both sides. Paralegals frequently prepare these.
Question 4: What is the IRAC method of legal analysis?
- A system for organizing case files
- A framework: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion (Correct answer)
- A method for client interviews
- A citation format
Correct answer: A framework: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion
IRAC stands for Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion - a structured approach to analyzing legal problems.
IRAC provides: (1) Issue - the legal question; (2) Rule - relevant legal principle; (3) Application - applying the rule to specific facts with counterarguments; (4) Conclusion - likely outcome. Variations include CRAC (Conclusion first) and CREAC. Paralegals use IRAC extensively in drafting memoranda and case analyses.
Question 5: What is a digest in legal research?
- A summary of a single case
- A collection of case law summaries organized by topic and legal issue for finding relevant cases (Correct answer)
- An index of statutes by subject
- A compilation of legal forms
Correct answer: A collection of case law summaries organized by topic and legal issue for finding relevant cases
A digest compiles brief case summaries organized by topic, making it easier to find cases on specific legal issues.
The West Digest System uses Key Numbers to organize topics into over 400 main topics and thousands of subtopics. Editors write headnotes for each case and compile them into digests. Types include the American Digest System (all jurisdictions), federal digests, regional digests, and state-specific digests.
Question 6: What is Boolean searching and how is it used in legal research?
- Searching by case name only
- Using logical operators like AND, OR, and NOT to combine or exclude terms in legal databases (Correct answer)
- Searching in Boolean law journals
- Searching paper libraries
Correct answer: Using logical operators like AND, OR, and NOT to combine or exclude terms in legal databases
Boolean searching uses logical connectors to create precise queries in databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis.
Key operators: AND (both terms), OR (either term), NOT (excludes), /s (same sentence), /p (same paragraph), /n (within n words), quotation marks (exact phrase). Boolean searching gives more control than natural language and is essential for complex legal research.
CP Legal Research and Writing 2
What is the difference between primary and secondary legal sources?