Act: usually a reference to a specific piece of legislation (e.g. Health Care Proxy Act).
Advance Sheet: a pamphlet edition of the most recent opinion of a court or group of courts, which is later replaced by a bound volume.
ALR: American Law Reports. Large, secondary research resource consisting of multi-jurisdictional in-depth articles (called“annotations” in ALRs) on various legal topics. Currently publishing ALR 6th, ALR Fed 2d and ALR International; earlier articles contained in ALR, ALR 2d, ALR 3d, ALR 4th, ALR 5th and ALR Fed.
Annotation: reference to the editorial information supplied in legal materials, such as references to cases, law reviews, related statutes, legislative histories, etc.
Appeal: a resort to a higher court for the purpose of obtaining a review of a lower court decision and reversal of the lower court’s judgment or the granting of a new trial.
Authority: The foundation or law upon which a legal argument is based.
Bluebook: Officially titled,The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, also known as the Harvard Bluebook. Currently in its 21st edition, The Bluebook gives examples and states the citation rules used by lawyers and judges when writing briefs or opinions.
Brief: A written, legal argument that conforms to specific court rules, in which a lawyer advances the merits of his or her client's case. A brief usually includes a statement of the questions the lawyer wants the court to consider, the law the court should apply to answer those questions, and an argument that applies the law to the factual circumstances the lawyer wants the court to adopt.
CFR: Code of Federal Regulations – The annual compilation of regulations promulgated by federal administrative agencies.
Case: A decision by a court. Also referred to as "case law" or an "opinion." Cases from a particular court or a group of courts are printed in books called reporters. Cases are also available in electronic databases.
Circuit - or Judicial Circuit: A Federal appellate court division. There are 13 United States Courts of Appeal, including the First through the Eleventh Circuits (based on groups of states), and the District of Columbia Circuit. The Seventh Circuit includes Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. — Alternate definition: a state court judicial division. In some states, circuit courts are state trial courts, as opposed to appellate courts. For example, the trial court in Milwaukee is the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
Citation: Information needed to find a case, statute, regulation, article, book or other resource. Consult The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation for correct citation formats.
Citator: A tool, usually online, that provides a list of other cases and publications mentioning a particular known case or statute. Some citators also allow you to check the continued validity of a statute or a point of case law. See, for example, KeyCite, and Shepard’s.
Code: A set of state or federal statutes arranged by subject matter rather than in the order the laws were passed.
Common law: in general, the body of law which is developed from judicial precedent (cases) rather than from legislation.
Digest: Digests are indexed, secondary sources that provide a means of finding cases by searching with subject terms, keywords and phrases, and party names, leading to case citations. Digests exist in print and online.
District: A court division. At the federal level, trial courts are called District Courts.
Headnote: A summary of a specific point of law taken from a published case opinion and arranged with other headnotes by subject in a digest. The headnotes derived from a particular case opinion are usually set out at the beginning of the written case opinion in a reporter. Headnotes are written by editors and are not part of the court’s decision.
KeyCite: A Westlaw function providing the prior and subsequent history of a case as well as a list of other cases and publications mentioning that case (citing references). Used to check the continued validity of a point of case law and to locate other similar cases. Often used as a verb.
Key Number System: A unique and consistent topic and number approach to locating points of law throughout any jurisdiction within the West digest and reporting system. Each point of law within a case opinion is assigned a topic and “key number” that represents a specific sub-topic. The points of law are then arranged by topic and key number within a digest.
Law Review: Usually a student-edited, scholarly, periodical publication that contains contributions from legal scholars, practitioners, judges, and law students. May provide critical analysis of cutting-edge legal issues.
Jurisdiction: the power to hear and determine a case. Can also refer to the territory within which a court or government agency may properly exercise its power
Law: An non-determinative word, which can be a reference to an Act, a case, a legal principle, a regulation, an ordinance, an agency’s ruling…(The phrase “I want to know the law on…” is one of the hardest to answer, as it requires first, some judgment in deciding just in what form the “law” is likely to be, and secondly assisting a patron with access to the “law”.).
Official edition: edition published under the authority of government.
Opinion/decision: written by judges, these detail the facts of the specific case and the reasoning upon which a judgment is based. This is not an official transcript.
Ordinance: refers to the enactments of a city or town covering issues of local interest which are not already covered by federal or state laws or regulations, such as zoning ordinances, ordinances regulating the use of signs, sewers, etc.
P.L. : Public Law—Laws passed in each session of Congress.
Periodical: A serial (journal, magazine) which is published at regular intervals, is numbered, contains separate articles, and has no pre-determined end date. Does not include newspapers or conference proceedings.
Periodical Index: Publication or database that facilitates locating law review articles by indexing articles according to subject, author, keyword, and cases and statutes mentioned within the articles. HeinOnline, Lexis, and Westlaw are a full-text, searchable database that includes legal periodicals.
Pocket Part: Supplementary material inserted into the back of a volume of code, treatise or other legal research material. The pocket part updates the contents of the volume from the date of publication to the date of the supplement. When using a resource, make sure to check the pocket part and/or the supplement for updated information, and note the currency of the update.
Primary Source: Constitutions, statutes, administrative regulations, case law, and treaties are primary law. Primary sources ARE law. Compare to Secondary Source, below
Public law: laws passed in each session of Congress; identified by Congress number and chronologically numbered.
Regulation: rule promulgated by a government agency which has the weight and effect of law.
Reports or reporters: a numbered series of books which contain the written decisions from a particular jurisdiction or opinions from one subject area(e.g. U.S. Reports, Bankruptcy Law Reporter, etc.) The reporters may be official or unofficial as stated by governmental authority.
Restatements: The Restatements of Law have been published by the American Law Institute ("ALI") since the 1930s. The Restatements are summaries of law written with the goal of rendering a legal subject into precise and succinct statements.
Secondary Source: Any source that is not the actual law, but rather is an explanation or analysis of the law. Legal encyclopedias, articles and books fall into this category as do attorney general opinions or restatements. Compare to Primary Source, above.
Series (e.g. 2d, 3d, 4th): as distinguished from edition, a series is a set of books which begins with number 1 and is terminated at an arbitrary point in time. When a series is terminated, the next volume published is volume 1 of the next series.
Shepardize: Verb originally meaning to check the validity of a case using Shepard’s or another citator. Occasionally used as a generic term for checking the validity of a case using a method incorporating a history check and a citing references check. Shepard's was the first broadly used legal citator.
Shepard’s: A Lexis function that provides the prior and subsequent history of a case, and lists cases and other sources mentioning that case (citing references). Used to check the continued validity of a point of case law and to locate other similar cases.
Session laws: compilation of the laws of a particular legislative body which are arranged and numbered in chronological order.
Slip Opinion: Print form of a court opinion issued soon after the announcement of the decision of the court. Slip opinions provide access to case decisions before cases are published in bound reporters
Statute: generally refers to laws which have been enacted by a legislature or by the U.S. Congress.
Supplement: A tool used to update a legal resource. Some supplements are stand-alone volumes containing new material. Other resources are supplemented by pocket parts or by newly added pages (as in a loose-leaf publication). In addition to the resource itself, its supplement(s) must be checked in order to obtain the most current information.
Table of Cases: In a digest, a table of cases is a list of cases and their citations that are contained in the digest. The table of cases can help to identify a case’s citation when only one or both of the parties' names are known.
Title: Can be a subject area in a state statutory or administrative code or in the United States Code, such as Criminal Law or Copyright Law, or in the Code of Federal Regulations. A part of an act as passed by Congress can also be called a title, such as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Transcript: an official and certified copy of what transpired in court. The transcript is usually prepared by a court reporter from shorthand notes made during the proceeding.
Treatise: type of secondary material covering a single legal topic (such as contracts, torts or taxes) which is written by one or multiple authors. It provides a broad overview of an area of law and makes direct reference to cases, laws and regulations on that topic.
Unofficial edition: edition published privately by independent publishers. If the language differs between an official and unofficial edition, the text of the official is to be followed as law.
Unannotated Code: Laws of a jurisdiction that contain only the words of the law, but no research references.