Introduction: THIS CHAPTER WILL NOT MAKE YOU A LAWYER

Some handy vocab, much of which I already knew but is handy anyway:

• Constitution: foundational document that sets the basic operating principles of a government including limitations
• Statute: written law created by legislation body (congress, etc)
• Regulation: rules built to enforce (“operationalize”) the statutes created
  • Example: Title IX is one paragraph, but to enforce it the US Dept of Education has written pages of regulations
• Common law/case law: the application of existing laws to particular cases, established by jurisprudence
• Jurisdiction: the authority of a particular court to resolve a dispute
  • Diversity of citizenship jurisdiction escalates a state law dispute to federal level (e.g. if residents of different states, or resolving an excess of $75,000)
• Concurrent jurisdiction: the fact that state courts can also have jurisdiction on resolving federal cases
• Certiorari: the appeal to the supreme court (denial of certiorari means the lower court’s decision stands)
• Appeals can only be made in the case of legal error, in that the existing law was not properly applied to the case

Criminal court is for crimes, while civil court is for non-crimes (though I think the book is really skipping over defining what a crime is). A tort is a civil wrong other than a breach of contract. This is usually for causing body or property harm, or harming someone’s ability to make money e.g. slander.

In criminal court, guilt must be established beyond reasonable doubt, while in civil court guilt is established by a “preponderance of evidence” which is a lower legal threshold to clear.

A civil case follows the following steps:

1. Bad thing happens
2. Plaintiff files complaint with the appropriate court
3. Defendant answers each charge with innocence or guilt, or motions to dismiss
4. If not dismissed, period of discovery occurs
   • Depositions: oral testimony under oath
   • Interrogatories: written testimony under oath
5. Due to deposition, one of the following may occur:
   • Out-of-court settlement
   • Summary judgment
     • Compensatory damages to cover loss/medical bills/etc
     • Punitive damages if malfeasance is determined
   • Trial on the merits
6. A trial may be concluded in many ways:
   • Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted
   • Motion for summary judgment
   • Petition for a preliminary injunction
     • Granted if all the following are met:
     • Plaintiff has a strong case
     • Plaintiff will suffer in the absence of a preliminary injunction
     • The injunction will not injure the defendant worse than not doing so will injure the plaintiff
     • The injunction will not have an adverse effect on the public interest
7. In a trial on the merits, the court generally uses canons of statuatory construction to reach a conclusion in interpretation of the laws
   • Many canons exist and they are a suite of tools, so using them is like using “thrusts” and “parries”
   • Interpretations must be made of regulations, constitutions, and common law
   • If a higher court makes a decision, it is binding to the lower courts, but persuasive to other courts not obligated to follow precedent
8. Stare decisis and precedents are supposed to make an orderly, uniform predictability to the rule of law. Not sure what country the authors think they live in but at least it’s a nice idea.

Alternative dispute resolutions (ADR):

• Arbitration
  • Final and binding
• Mediation
  • Nogiation the settlement of the dispute
• Ombudsperson

Legal resources:

• Primary legal resources
  • Laws (statutes and regulations)
  • Court decisions
• Secondary legal resources
  • Legal encyclopedias
  • Law dictionaries
  • Case summaries
  • Restatements
  • Treatises & hornbooks
  • Law reviews
  • Case digests
  • Websites & databases

Steps to doing legal research:

1. Identify the issue
2. Find the relevant law
3. Read & summarize the relevant law
4. Update the relevant law (check the latest precedents, e.g. in Shepard‘s)
5. Organize your information

Read case studies to get an idea for how existing law is applied. Boy talk about a chain of logic!

Also in the case law hypothetical examples it uses the term “transsexuals”, uh the book was published in 2014 but I bet that example was written in the first edition and people forgot to update it ^_^;