1. Statutes Basic Legal Skills January 13, 2006

2. Research Process Review Preliminary Analysis –Secondary sources –Key words & phrases Statutes Mandatory Precedent Persuasive Precedent Refine, Double-Check & Update

3. Gallagher College of Statutory Knowledge Build on what you know Explore options for finding statutes

4. What? Who? Why? How? A body of laws written by legislatures (U.S. Congress & state) Under constitutional authority Concerning rights & obligations of residents & businesses

5. Lesson One Look for statutes early in the legal research process

6. Law IN Order Date “Session laws”Session laws U.S. Statutes at Large (Stat.) Laws of Washington Subject “Code” U.S. Code (U.S.C.)U.S. Code Revised Code of Washington (R.C.W.)Revised Code of Washington

7. Deciphering Citations Americans with Disabilities Act Pub. L. No. 101-336 104 Stat. 327 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq. Growth Management Act Laws, 1990 1st ex.s. c 17 RCW 36.70A

9. Official vs. Unofficial Codes Official, unannotated Gov’t published Current laws History notes Index Tables Popular names table Unofficial, annotated Commercially published Official code contents Citations to articles, cases, regulations, forms & practice materials

10. Compare Cornell’s Legal Information Institute 42 U.S.C. § 12112 Westlaw, United States Code Annotated 42 U.S.C.A. § 12112

11. Searching for Statutes Google?Google Secondary sources Indexes Tables of contents Popular names Full-text online Agency websites

12. Westlaw

14. LexisNexis

15. Hints Be creative, flexible & persistent Consider synonyms Recheck secondary sources Child? Infant? Minor? Juvenile? Issue? Offspring? Youth? Rugrat?

16. Lesson 2 Use multiple approaches to identify relevant statutes

17. Update! Determine how up to date the source is Lexis & Westlaw update statutes frequently Free Internet sites & print sources may be equally current (or out of date)

18. Review 1.Look for statutes early in the legal research process 2.Use multiple approaches to locate relevant statutes 3.Update the statute

19. Gallagher Guide Statutory Research Checklist, http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/statute.htm http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/statute.htm –Basic approaches –Links to guides & tutorials