Nolo’s Encyclopedia of Everyday Law Phần 10 pot

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Appendix: Legal Research

A.2 Learning About a

Particular Area of the

Law

A.4 Finding a Specific

Law

A.8 Finding Answers to

Specific Legal

Questions

A.10 Finding Legal Forms

Legal research is how you learn about the law. It is not a skill

reserved exclusively for lawyers; you can find the answers to your

legal questions if you are armed with a little bit of patience and a

good road map.

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The best legal research method de￾pends on what you need to find out.

Usually, people want to research the

law in order to accomplish one of the

following things:

• understand a particular area of the

law

• find and read a statute, regulation,

ordinance, court decision or piece of

pending legislation (usually called a

bill)

• find the answer to a specific legal

question, or

• find a legal form.

This appendix explains how to do

legal research in each of these situa￾tions.

Learning

About a

Particular

Area of the

Law

Many people need to understand an

area of the law before making an im￾portant decision. For example, you

might want to know:

• What laws are involved when

selling a business?

• What’s the difference between a

living trust and a living will?

• What effect does divorce have on

pensions earned during marriage?

Questions like these can be an￾swered without regard to your specific

circumstances; they involve a general

understanding of the law. To find this

type of information about a legal

topic, you should turn to legal back￾ground materials.

Legal background materials are

books, articles and encyclopedia en￾tries in which experts summarize and

explain the basic principles of a legal

subject area, such as bankruptcy,

landlord-tenant law or criminal law.

These materials come in many forms

and can be found in law libraries or,

sometimes, on the Internet.

How to Find a Law

Library

Most counties have law libraries in the

government buildings or courthouses at

the county seat. These libraries are open

to the public. County libraries are a good

place to go if you’re looking for your

state’s laws.

Law schools also maintain libraries for

their students and staff. Although public

access to some law school libraries is

restricted, many are willing to extend

help to non-students. If you are looking

for material from other states or coun￾tries, a law school library is the best

place to start.

Finally, don’t limit yourself to law

libraries. Most major public libraries in

urban areas contain both local and state

laws.

Here are a number of legal back￾ground resources that you may find

useful:

L E G A L R E S E A R C H

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• Self-Help Law Books. Self-help law

books, such as those published by

Nolo, are written in plain English

for a non-lawyer audience. They are

an excellent starting point for

cracking any legal area that is new

to you. Law libraries, public librar￾ies and bookstores (including Nolo’s

online bookstore at http://

www.nolo.com) often carry self-help

law books.

• Organizations and Advocacy Groups.

Many non-profit and professional

organizations or advocacy groups—

such as tenants’ rights groups, the

American Association of Retired

People (AARP) and local business

groups—publish articles or booklets

on particular legal topics. Think

about what groups might have the

information you need and then look

for them in the Yellow Pages or on

the Web.

• Legal Encyclopedias. You can often

find a good introduction to your

topic in a legal encyclopedia. The

legal encyclopedias most commonly

found in law libraries are American

Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris. Many

states have legal encyclopedias that

are state-specific—for example,

Texas Jurisprudence.

• The “Nutshell” Series. Another good

introduction to legal topics is the

“Nutshell” series, as in Torts in a

Nutshell and Intellectual Property in a

Nutshell, published by West Group.

These books are available in most

law libraries.

• Treatises. If you have the time and

patience to delve deeply into a

subject, you can find comprehensive

books—generally known as trea￾tises—on virtually every legal topic.

For example, if you want to know

about some aspect of trademark law,

you could use McCarthy on Trade￾marks, a multi-volume treatise on all

aspects of trademark law.

• West’s Legal Desk Reference. This

book, by Statsky, Hussey, Diamond

and Nakamura, lists background

materials both by state and legal

topic. In addition, West’s Legal Desk

Reference provides keywords and

phrases that will help you use the

indexes to other resources you may

need during your research.

• Internet Resources. Nolo’s Legal

Encyclopedia, available free at http://

www.nolo.com, explains many

common legal issues in plain

English. The other major legal

websites (listed below) also provide

helpful information and links to

specific areas of the law. Finally,

many government agency sites

provide legal information, such as

state marriage license requirements

or downloadable publications on

different legal topics. For example,

if you visit the Federal Judiciary’s

website at http://www.uscourts.gov,

you can download Bankruptcy

Basics, a pamphlet providing a good

overview of bankruptcy. To find

government agencies online, see

Finding Court and Government

Agency Websites, below.

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The Best Legal

Websites

In addition to our own website at http://

www.nolo.com, Nolo’s favorite legal

websites are:

• FindLaw

http://www.findlaw.com

• The National Federation of

Paralegal Associations http://

www.paralegals.org/LegalResources/

home.html

• The World Wide Web Virtual

Library http://

www.law.indiana.edu/v-lib

• American Association of Law

Libraries: Legal Research Links

http://www.aallnet.org/research

• The Library of Congress Guide

to Law Online http://loc.gov/law/

guide

• The Legal Information Institute

at Cornell Law School http://

www.law.cornell.edu

Finding a

Specific Law

There are many reasons why you

might need to find a specific statute,

regulation, ordinance or court deci￾sion. For example, you might learn

from the newspaper about new state

laws governing overtime wages and

want to read the laws themselves. Or

perhaps the city building department

has referred you to a particular city

ordinance that covers zoning laws in

your neighborhood. Whatever the

reason, the research involved in find￾ing a specific law or court decision is

relatively straightforward. The steps

depend on what type of law you seek.

City or County Laws

You can usually get copies of city or

county laws (often called “ordi￾nances”) from the office of the city or

county clerk. The main branch of your

public library is also likely to have a

collected set of these laws. Once you

get there, ask the reference librarian

for help.

Many local ordinances are also

available on the Web. The best place

to start is Municipal Codes Online,

maintained by the Seattle Public Li￾brary at http://www.spl.org/

selectedsites/municode.html.

State or Federal Statutes and

Regulations

Rules established by state and federal

governments are called statutes and

regulations. Federal statutes are

passed by the United States Congress,

while state statutes are passed by state

legislatures. Regulations are issued by

state or federal administrative agen￾cies (such as the U.S. Department of

Transportation or the State Depart￾ment of Health) for the purpose of

implementing and enforcing statutes.

You can find statutes and regula￾tions in the library or on the Internet.

You can also use legal background

materials to point the way to the stat￾ute or regulation you seek.