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Shepard’s Legal Information Analysis Mar. 2005, Taiwan By Jensen Wang For educational purposes only All products and brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Looney Tunes characters and all related slogans and indica are trademarks of Warner Bros. Inc. The use of such material falls under Fair use provisions. The Seminar on Research and Application of Legal Material
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AGENDA OF PRESENTATION 1. Introduction on Shepardization 2. Shepard’s on Caselaw 3. Case Analysis for Commonwealth Materials 4. Bill Tracking & RegAlert 5. Questions & Answers
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Legal Research Why we need Shepard’s / Shepardization? 1. Counsel’s Duty “Moreover, the failure to cite, if not Huang, at least Pisano, decided almost a year earlier, is a violation of counsel's "duty to disclose directly adverse authority." Counsel claim to have been "unaware of [those cases] until the oral argument on the motion." For counsel to have been unaware of those cases means that they did not Shepardize their principal authority … Thus their failure to cite adverse authority is not excusable.” By Schwarzer J. in Golden Eagle Distributing Corp. v. Burroughs Corp., 40 Fed. R. Serv. 2d (Callaghan) 346
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Legal Research Why we need Shepard’s / Shepardization? 2. Inexcusable failure / Professional negligence “It is really inexcusable for any lawyer to fail, as a matter of routine, to Shepardize all cited cases (a process that has been made much simpler today than it was in the past, given the facility for doing so…). Shepardization would of course have revealed that the "precedent" no longer qualified as such”. By Milton Shadur J. in Gosnell v. Rentokil, Inc., 175 F.R.D. 508
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Legal Research Why we need Shepard’s / Shepardization? 3. Dismissal of Application “ Petitioner's lead counsel admits that neither he nor any of the lawyers (including local Georgia counsel) or paralegals assisting him made any effort prior to the filing of the second petition to research the decided cases upon which he now relies…By simply "Shepardizing" the Fifth Circuit's prior decision in their own case, counsel would have been alerted to the decision in Westbrook, which in turn relies upon Spivey and controls Finney. Similarly, the use of basic research techniques such as …Lexis would have identified the possible relevance of these cases prior to the filing of petitioner's second petition…Accordingly, the court hereby determines that petitioner's failure to raise this claim in his second habeas petition was inexcusable”. By Owens, District Judge in Stephens v. Kemp, 602 F. Supp. 960
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Shepard’s Shepardization involves the following steps: 1.Identification of Leading Authorities 2.Searching of Adverse Authorities 3.Determination of Applicability 4.Eclipse on Future Development
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Identification of Leading Authorities Example: whether the employer can rely on the arbitration agreement to stay the proceedings in courts? Employee Employer Employment agreement Arbitration Clause Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Arbitration Tribunal Federal Arbitration Act Disability Discrimination Right-to-sue Letter (Signed a Release or Waiver?)
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Identification of Leading Authorities Federal Arbitration Act and stay w/s proceeding and refer! w/s arbitration and Discrimination
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Identification of Leading Authorities
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- Warning: Negative treatment is indicated - Caution: Possible negative treatment - Positive treatment is indicated - Citing Refs. With Analysis Available - Citation information available
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Identification of Leading Authorities Warning: Negative treatment is indicated Caution: Possible negative treatment Positive treatment is indicated Citing Refs. With Analysis Available Citation information available Supreme Court Court of Appeal 2001 Warning Court of Appeal Supreme Court Overruled Caution Distinguished Affirmed Positive Treatment Court of Appeal Applied 2002 2003 Citation Cited
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Identification of Leading Authorities
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An agreement between an employer and an employee to arbitrate employment-related disputes does not bar the EEOC from pursuing victim-specific judicial relief, such as backpay, reinstatement, and damages, in an ADA enforcement action.
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Identification of Leading Authorities
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Shepard’s Shepard Legend shows - Caution: Possible negative treatment Must Retrieve Shepard’s Report to Check Adverse Authorities
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Shepard’s Retrieval of Shepard’s Report
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s “In the time since Waffle House was decided, the Supreme Court's reasoning has not been explicitly extended to apply to situations where an employee has signed a waiver or release, rather than an arbitration agreement. Indeed, the Supreme Court suggested that whether such a extension was in order was an "open question“…The court considers the extension of Waffle House's reasoning in relationship to arbitration agreements, to waivers and releases, quite reasonable”. By DOMINIC J. SQUATRITO in Senich v. American-Republican, Inc., 215 F.R.D. 40
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s
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Shepard’s “However, the issue here is not whether non-signatories to the agreement can be compelled to arbitrate; rather, it is whether these non-signatories may compel plaintiff, admittedly a party to the contract, to arbitrate. See Choctaw, 271 F.3d at 406 (noting this distinction). EEOC v. Waffle House does not alter this analysis, and the claims against the individual defendants are subject to the arbitration agreement”. Gambardella v. Pentec, Inc., 218 F. Supp. 2d 237
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Shepard’s Discrimination Claims can be maintained Signature of Release & Waiver has no effect on the EEOC suit The claims against the individual defendants are still subject to the arbitration agreement
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Shepard’s Shepard’s Report gives the full picture of the authorities and the related decisions
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Applicability 534 U.S. 279
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Applicability
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Applicability California State Courts
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Applicability
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Applicability
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Applicability
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Applicability After reading the state courts treatment on the case, it can be determined whether the case is fully applicable to a particular jurisdiction.
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Eclipse for Future Development
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Verification of Commonwealth Information
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stay w/s proceeding and refer! w/s arbitration and waive
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Verification of Commonwealth Information Hong Kong England Canada
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Verification of Commonwealth Information
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Positive Treatment Technology: making use of treatment phrases
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Verification of Commonwealth Information
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Negative Treatment
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Verification of Commonwealth Information
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Case Analysis provides automatic checking on treatment phrase. Unlike Shepard’s report, it was not perused by editors and may not totally reflect the decision of the court.
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Verification of Commonwealth Information
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Bill Tracking Bill Tracking – checking the current status of the Bills in U.S. RegAlert – provide alert to the newly issued regulations on a topic
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Bill Tracking
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Requests the Council on Science and Technology to create a study group on how the State should treat intellectual property created under state contracts.
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Full Text of Bill
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RegAlert
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RegAlert
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RegAlert
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RegAlert
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Conclusion LexisNexis allow lawyers to check and verify the search Results and make sure the authorities submitted to client or court accurately represent the current law in force.
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Q&As Any Questions?
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The Seminar on Research and Application of Legal Material Thank You!
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