Restatements FSU Research Center Fall 2008 Laura Fargo Research Center Intern

Restatements Highly regarded distillations of common law Restate what the law is, not what it should be Why are the Restatements good secondary sources? The black letter law covered by Restatements are highly influential in courts They are a great way to find cases associated with particular topics

Restatements: Origins & Goals American Law Institute (ALI), : Two defects in American law -- uncertainty and complexity 1923: ALI founded by prominent American judges, lawyers and law professors. Their goals: To produce a clear/concise statement of existing common law from cases. To distill the black letter rules of common law, to indicate a trend in common law, and to allow researchers to use Restatements to argue what a rule of law should be. Highly persuasive in courts

ALI Annual Report: April 2004 State/federal courts cited the Restatements 161,486 times By the end of 2007, approximately 175,000 citations 60% of citations to Restatements on torts and contracts. Torts citations almost double contracts cites. Many fewer cites to other topical areas. Some states have established the Restatements as default principles of law: Arizona courts "follow the principles set forth in the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law except in cases where a different rule has been laid down by this Court" or where a statute is controlling. Odekirk v. Austin, 366 P.2d 80, 81 (1961)

Restatements Current Series Restatement, 1 st ( ) Restatement, 2d ( ) Restatement, 3d (1987-present) Property 1 st Conflicts of Law 2dAgency 3d RestitutionContracts 2dForeign Relations Law of the United States Judgments 2dProperty 3d – Mortgages Property 2d – Donative TransfersProperty 3d – Servitudes Property 2d – Landlord and Tenant Property 3d – Wills and Other Donative Transfers Torts 2dSuretyship and Guaranty Trusts 2dThe Law Governing Lawyers Torts 3d – Apportionment of Liability Torts 3d – Products Liability Trusts 3d Unfair Competition

Restatements Now publishing Restatements, 3d series Updated by pocket parts and/or supplementary pamphlets To check for completeness, see the ALI ChecklistALI Checklist Must be formally adopted by ALI members Publication pattern: Annual Meeting Discussion Drafts Tentative Draft(s) (T.D. #1; #2; etc.) Preliminary Final Draft Official Text (approved final draft) FSU Research Center: KF395 A2

Restatement Structure: Chapters Narrower titles Numbered sections. Each section begins with a black letter statement of a broad legal issue Sub-issues are discussed in the authors Comments and Illustrations that follow each statement. Comments and Illustrations are often cited by courts to explain the law. Comments

Main Volume

Appendix Volume

Reporters Notes are at the end of each section or in the Appendix volumes of the Agency, Torts, and Trust Restatements. Recent volumes have cross-references to the West Key Number System ® and ALR annotations. Updating Restatements Drafts of new series are published in soft-cover format Cumulative annual supplements Interim case citation pamphlet Pocket parts

Research Aids in the Restatements Research aids include: Tables of Cases and Statutes Conversion Tables for Drafts Cross References to ALR and Wests Key Number System Indexes Appendix volumes Contain summaries of cases that have cited each section of the Restatement.

Indexes Restatement, 1 st series, has a one-volume index to all Restatements. Restatements, 2d and 3d Series, do not have a comprehensive index. Some have subject index for each volume. Recent Restatements have an index in the last volume or in a separate volume. Features vary by series and by volume.

Research methods for Restatements 3 ways to find a relevant Restatement section: 1. Search an online version using keyword searching 2. Use the Table of Contents online or in print 3. Use the Index in print. Table of Contents are clear and easy to browse but are usually volume specific. For Restatements two or three volumes long, you must search each volume to browse the entire Table of Contents. Note: As a research technique, this is effective only in limited circumstances.

Restatements Online Lexis: Secondary Legal library, Restatements file Westlaw: REST Westlaw database REST – all Restatements of the Law REST-AGEN – Agency REST-CONFL – Conflict of Laws REST-CONTR – Contract Restatement REST-FOREL – The Foreign Relations Law of the United States REST-JUDG – Judgments REST-LGOVL – Law Governing Lawyers PL-REST – Product Liability REST-PROP – Property REST-RESTI – Restitution REST-SEC – Security and Suretyship and Guaranty REST-TORT – Torts REST-TRUST–Trusts REST-UNCOM – Unfair Competition

Restatements Online Lexis Rules (along with comments, illustrations, and notes) are searchable in separate sources from case citations. This makes searching for relevant rules very efficient on LexisNexis. Case citations are linked from individual rules. Browse Tables of Contents or search by keyword. Restatement drafts are in separate sources from final versions of Restatements. The first series of Restatements is not available on LexisNexis. Retrieving Restatement sections using Get a Document is not intuitive. Search for restatement in the Get a Document Citation Formats list to determine the proper Get format.

Restatements Online Lexis You can Shepardize a Restatement section on LexisNexis using the following formats: torts second sec. 46 property second (donative transfers) sec 25.9 conflict of laws second sec. 6 contracts second sec. 35 cmt. d illus. 7 Bluebook citations do not work

Restatements Online Westlaw All series of Restatements are available on Westlaw. Browse Tables of Contents or search by keyword. Searching the Restatements on Westlaw can be problematic because multiple series, selected drafts, and case citations to all of them are combined into one database This can make keyword searching inefficient unless you use a fielded search or use the Table of Contents mode to search within a particular Restatement. Examine search results carefully to make sure you are looking at the current version of a rule. If a rule has been superceded, there is an indicating note above the rule text.

Restatements Online Westlaw You can KeyCite a Restatement section on Westlaw using the following formats: rest agen s 1 rest 2d contr s 3 rest 2d prop-lt s 1.1 rest 3d trusts-pir s 170 KeyCite on Westlaw finds much more citing material than Shepardizing on Lexis.

Restatements Online If you wanted to know how to determine the standard of conduct in a negligence case, how would you search for this? First, well look at the Restatements on Lexis, then we will look at Westlaw…

Restatements in Lexis

Restatements in Westlaw

Restatements Online Lexis Table of Contents, but no index Table of Contents easy to find for rule sections Drafts, archives, and case citations in separate database from current rule sections Does not have Restatement 1 st Series Westlaw Table of Contents, but no index Table of Contents somewhat hard to find All versions of rule sections (drafts, current, and archives) as well as case citations are in the same database Browsing through the rule sections easier than in Lexis Has all series of Restatements Will get more results when searching because Westlaw publishes the Restatements and has more cross references available

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