BHCC Library Resources for Legal research/writing

To get to the web page covering legal databases, follow the link Legal research/writing-legal databases

The following is support material related to a library instruction session conducted by a library instructor and a BHCC Criminal Justice Department course instructor.

Finding what you need

Consider what you need before you begin your search for law related information.

Ask yourself, how you plan to conduct your research, sort through the information you find, select the most appropriate items, and evaluate the credibility of the materials you plan to use. In order to answer these questions, you need to know a little about how legal information is organized, and the two major kinds of legal information resources that exist.

The two major kinds of legal information resources:Primary Sources of Legal Information & Secondary Sources of Legal Information

I. Primary Sources of Legal Information -- Also known as "The Law."

Examples of Primary Sources of Legal Information: Statutes, Court opinions, Constitutions, town ordinances, city codes, agency regulations, executive orders, and other documents issued by a body with legal authority.

II. Secondary Sources of Legal Information -- Also known as "Commentary on the Law."

Examples of Secondary Sources of Legal Information: Legal encyclopedias, legal treatises (books by legal scholars analyzing areas of the law), Legal textbooks, articles in legal newspapers, articles in law journals, articles from the Boston Globe on a legal topic, case digests (sources that let you find legal cases), as well as many others.

Why does knowing about primary and secondary sources of legal information matter?

It matters because the law is complex. In many cases, particularly when you known nothing about the area of the law you wish to study, it is better to start by reading a secondary source of legal information.

FINDING SECONDARY SOURCES OF LEGAL INFORMATION IN BOOKS

Books can be excellent secondary sources of legal information. There are two approaches to finding such books in a library.

Approach 1: BROWSE THE SHELVES – At BHCC Library or ANY Library!

Here are a few law books (secondary sources) in our collection that may give you an overview of the area of the law that interest you, and for definitions of legal terms: (You have to check them to find out.)

West's Encyclopedia of American Law	Massachusetts Practice	Black's Law Dictionary	The Oxford Companion to American Law
REF KF154 .W47 1998	REF KFM2480 .M3	REF KF156 .B53 2004	REF KF154 .O96 2002

Important tips when browsing shelves:

• Books are arranged on the shelf by subject – via a CALL NUMBER assigned to the book! (A book’s call number is like an address!) KF is for the law in general, and KFM is for Mass. law.
• Reference books do not circulate, and have the call# prefix REF.
• Many (but NOT all!) books on the same legal topic have similar call numbers, and so are shelved near each other. Therefore, get the call number of ONE book that interests you, and then look at books shelved next to this book.
• Always consider the following CRUCIAL questions when looking at any secondary source of legal information: Is the source reputable? Does the source cover federal law, state law, or both? How old is the source? If it’s a book, does the book have a pocket part, and did you check it?
• Keep in mind that many law books have table of contents and indexes. USE THESE TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION SPECIFICALLY ABOUT YOUR LEGAL TOPIC! IF YOU CAN’T FIND ONE SET OF WORDS IN THE INDEX, TRY ANOTHER!

Approach 2: USE THE CATALOG – At BHCC Library or ANY Library!

The catalog is a tool that lets you find physical books (and other items) in a library – every physical book has a record in the catalog! A catalog does NOT contain the full-text of books!

Here’s the web address for the BHCC Library Catalog: http://catalog.noblenet.org/search~S37/

Important tips when using the catalog to find law books that are secondary sources:

• Try a keyword search using one or more words that describe your specific legal concept. If you find nothing, then broaden your search. (For example: first search for “murder”. If you find nothing, then search for “criminal law”, a broader topic.) Of course, you need to know the area of law your legal concept falls into, information you can often obtain from a legal encyclopedia. Keyword searches “pull up” all the records that contain the words. (There are entire books on many specific legal concepts, called treatises. This is how to find them!)
• BHCC Library does not contain many treatises, but law libraries do.
• You will always need at least the call number of the book to find the book on the shelf! (We still strongly recommend copying all the information down!)
• When you find a catalog record for 1 book about your legal concept, then click on the book’s SUBJECT, to “pull up” all books with the same subject!

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES OF LEGAL INFORMATION IN BOOKS

There are two major primary sources of printed legal information, annotated codes (which contain laws and citations to cases that interpret them), and case reporters (which contain the full text of legal cases). Here’s information about each:

• Major Annotated Code for Massachusetts – Massachusetts General Law Annotated (MGLA). The call number for this set is REF KFM2430 1958 (but many vols. do not have call# labels) This set contains the state laws, and citations to the interpretative case law.

Issues to keep in mind when using MGLA:

• Have to use the physical volumes of MGLA in BHCC Library, or another library that has this set.
• Need to look up your legal concept in the index volumes, which can be tricky to use. (It’s good to have several alternative words to look up, in case one or more don’t appear in the index.)
• The statutes appear first, followed by the interpretive case law citation in the annotation (Annotation text is NOT a primary source. EDITORS HAVE ADDED IT!)
• Always check the pocket part for updates, and always consider the age of the volumes.

Major Case Reporter for Massachusetts – Massachusetts Decisions – The call number for this set is REF KFM2447 (but many vols. do not have call# number labels). This set contains cases decided by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court and Massachusetts appellate courts.

Issues to keep in mind when using Massachusetts Decisions:

• Need to be able to read case citations in order to find cases in case reporters (Check below for sources of you want to review how to do this.) •
• Need to differentiate the text of the actual case from any additional information (such as the head notes) that has been added by editors. (This additional information is NOT a primary source!) •
• Need to consider the following crucial questions when looking at any case: Is it a federal or a state case? How old is the case? What is the level (and circuit) of the court that handled the case?

   

  Working with Case Names and Citations
  Review the web page how to read a legal citation . After reviewing the web page, consider the US Supreme Court case Cooper v. Oklahoma, which is in volume 517 of the United States Reports on page 348, and was decided in the year 1996. What is the defendant's name in this case? What is the plaintiff's name in this case? Write down the correct citation to this case.
  

  Important Electronic Sources of Legal Information

  The BHCC Library Electronic Resources: http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm

  Specialized database: Lexis-Nexis. Click on the Legal Research link on the Lexis/Nexis entry page to begin to search for cases or other law-related information.

  Lexis/Nexis is available from on or off campus. Clicking on the link to the left will take you to the BHCC database page, where you can click on the link to get into Lexis/Nexis (If you are off-campus you will be asked to enter your 14 digit barcode number on the back of your BHCC ID and your last name.)

  On the Web, a good place to start your research is The Findlaw website available at: http://www.findlaw.com

  Other law-related websites of interest

  You can find the annotated text of the Constitution (the text with analysis of and references to pertinent Supreme Court decisions) at the Government Printing Office website: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/index.html

  Links maintained by our Library consortium: http://www.noblenet.org/law.html

  Legal Research Using the Internet from the University of Chicago: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/mpoctalk.html

  The constituional law page at UC is also very good: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/conlaw.html

  Florida State University connections to site useful for Criminal Justice students: http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/p/cjl-main.php

  Statewide Legal Reference Service - links to public law libraries in Massachusetts and their resources: http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/

  This page from the Massachusetts state legislature site allows you to search the text of the Massachusetts General laws:http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/mgllink.htm

  The Oyez Project from Northwestern University provides abstracts and other materials for leading cases in constitutional law decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, along with a wealth of other material about the highest court in the land.http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage

  Legal Journals & Law Reviews

  The Lawyers Weekly is at http://www.lawyersweeklyusa.com/

  Evaluating what you find…

  Remember...too much information can be as problematic as too little information. Computers, paper indexes, the Internet, and the World Wide Web are tools for accessing and managing information. Efficient and effective use of these tools is the responsibility of the user (that's you).

  Take a few minutes to look at a web page posted by Sonoma State University Library that will highten your awareness of what to watch out for when using online resources. Go to…

  http://library.sonoma.edu/research/subject/evaluate.html

  Citing what you find:

  The online version of Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (2006 ed.) by Peter W. Martin is found at http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

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  Last reviewed February 07, 2007 Last updated March 07, 2007