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i
WRITING HANDBOOK
iii
N I N T H E D I T I O N
WRITING HANDBOOK
ANDREA B. YELIN
us at www.AspenPublishing.com.
Aspen Publishing
PO Box 990
Frederick, MD 21705
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
ISBN 978-1-5438-2618-0
Title: The legal research and writing handbook : a basic approach for paralegals /
Provided by publisher.
Classification: LCC KF240 .Y45 2022 (print) | LCC KF240 (ebook) | DDC
340.072/073 — dc23/eng/20211109
digital learning solutions to law schools in the U.S. and around the
The Aspen Casebook Series (famously known among law faculty and
such as the Examples & Explanations and the Emanuel Law Outlines
available to students.
course curricula.
students.
students with access to the most popular study aids on the market
audio, and video formats with full text search, note-taking, and
highlighting capabilities.
exploration.
vii
—ABY
—HVS
ix
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
CHAPTERS
3 Court Decisions
5 Validating
6 Secondary Authority
8 Legislative History
10 Commercial Databases
11 Practice Rules
12 Ethical Rules
13 Practitioner’s Materials
14 Research Strategy
17 Writing Basics
21 Facts
25 Correspondence
Appendix: Citation
Index
xi
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
USE THEM
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
1. Jurisdiction
2. Precedent
3. Hierarchy of Authorities
a. Currency
b. Levels of Court
4. Dicta
B. TYPES OF LEGAL RESOURCES
1. Primary Authority
Authority?
2. Secondary Authority
3. Finding Tools
5. Nonlegal Sources
xiii
Checklist
In-Class Exercise
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. REPORTERS
1. Bench Opinions
2. Slip Opinions
3. Preliminary Prints
4. Bound Reporters
a. U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
Internet?
Why Use the Commercial Reporters Rather Than the Official Reports?
5. State Reporters
Why Would You Use the Regional Reporter Rather Than the Official State
Reporter?
xiv
6. Computerized Reporting
Can You Find Decisions on the Internet and through Fee-Based Computer
Services?
What Free Resources Allow Researchers to Search for Federal and State
Cases?
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. CONTENT OF DIGESTS AND ONLINE TOPICAL CLASSIFICATION
SYSTEMS ORGANIZATION
What Are Digests and Online Topical Classification Systems, and What Do
They Contain?
2. Types of Digests
Once You Have a Relevant Topic or Key Number, What Comes Next?
xv
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER 5 VALIDATING
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. SHEPARD’S
What Is a Citator?
What Information Does Shepard’s Provide for Researchers and How Do You
B. KEYCITE
C. OTHER CITATORS
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
B. DICTIONARIES
C. ENCYCLOPEDIAS
1. Generally
xvi
Why Would You Use an Encyclopedia?
2. American Jurisprudence
G. UNIFORM LAWS
Where Do You Find Uniform Laws?
H. LEGAL PERIODICALS
xvii
What Is a Blog?
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. CONSTITUTIONS
What Is a Constitution?
What Is the Relationship Between the Federal Constitution and the State
Constitutions?
Are There Any Hardcopy Digests or Other Finding Tools That Assist with
B. STATUTES
What Are Statutes?
What Is Codification?
xviii
Research?
How Can You Tell Whether a State Code Is the Official or the Unofficial
Statutory Compilation?
b. State Statutes
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION
B. LEGISLATIVE HISTORIES
Enacted?
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
xix
LOOSELEAF SERVICES
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. INTRODUCTION
What Is Administrative Law?
How Can Administrative Agencies Create Law When This Is the Job of
Congress?
B. REGULATIONS
1. Generally
2. Specific Sources
a. Federal Register
How Can You Use Lexis and Westlaw to Retrieve the Federal Register?
D. DECISIONS
KeyCite?
Other Than the Agency Itself, Where Can You Find Administrative Agency
Decisions?
E. LOOSELEAF SERVICES
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. INTRODUCTION
Systems?
2. Additional Features
1. General Overview
2. The Basics
3. Search Formulation
a. Connectors
b. Quotations
c. Plurals
d. Irregular Plurals
e. Hyphenated Words
b. Other Restrictors
c. Fields
6. Point-and-Click Enhancements
xxi
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
1. Sources
Where Do You Find These Rules? Are the Federal Rules Available Online?
How Would You Cite a Decision Contained in the Federal Rules Decisions?
Where Would You Find State Rules and Local Rules for State Courts?
D. ENSURING CURRENCY
How Do You Ensure That You Are Reviewing the Most Current Version of the
Rule?
xxii
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
What Type of Authority Are These State Rules of Attorney Conduct and
When Would You Review the Rules for Ethical Conduct and the Applicable
Cases?
What Is the Value of an Annotated Source for the Rules and Codes?
Where Can You Find the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct?
3. Research Process
Can You Find State Ethical Rules and Opinions on Westlaw and Lexis?
How Would You Cite an Ethics Rule Found in the ABA Model Rules of
Professional Conduct?
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. FORMS
xxiii
1. Checklists
3. Handbooks
4. Jury Instructions
What Are Pattern Jury Instructions, and How Do They Differ from Other Jury
Instructions?
Do the Federal Courts Have Pattern Jury Instructions and Where Can They
Be Found?
What Type of Research Should Be Done Before You Draft Jury Instructions?
6. Other Tools
How Do You Locate Lawyers and Law Firms in Other States or Within a
State?
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
LAW
1. Question
2. Learn
1. Evaluate
1. Question
2. Learn
3. Find
4. Evaluate
xxiv
Summary Checklist
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
How Do You Complete the Research Process and Make the Transition to
Writing?
a. Purpose
b. Audience
Checkpoints
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. PURPOSE OF EDITING
B. PROCESS OF EDITING
xxv
1. Diction
What Is Diction?
2. Voice
3. Paragraphs
4. Sentences
Revision Checklist
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. PUNCTUATION
1. Commas
2. Special Comma Rules
3. Semicolons
4. Colons
5. Parentheses
8. Apostrophes
B. MODIFIERS
C. PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION
E. RUN-ON SENTENCES
F. SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
H. PRONOUNS
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
xxvi
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
B. DIAGRAM OF A DECISION
1. Citation
2. Procedural History
3. Issues
4. Holding
5. Facts
6. Reasoning
7. Dicta
8. Disposition
D. CASE ANALYSIS
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
B. AUDIENCE
C. COMPONENTS OF A MEMORANDUM
1. Heading
xxvii
2. Questions Presented or Issues
4. Facts
5. Discussion
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
1. First Draft
1. Brief Answers
2. Conclusions
3. Drafting Conclusions
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER 21 FACTS
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. FACTS STATEMENT
1. Defining Fact
xxviii
1. Chronological Organization
3. Organization by Party
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. PURPOSES OF IRAC
What Is IRAC?
B. IRAC COMPONENTS
1. Issues
What Is the Difference Between the Question Presented and the Issues in
IRAC Paragraphs?
2. Rules of Law
4. Conclusion
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
xxix
AUTHORITIES
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. SYNTHESIS
B. TYPES OF SYNTHESIS
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
MEMORANDUM
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
A. PURPOSE OF OUTLINING
B. STEPS TO OUTLINING
2. Organize Issues
What Steps Should You Follow in Preparing Your Outline of Each of the
Issues?
6. Add Authority
7. Refine Issues
xxx
C. MULTI-ISSUE MEMORANDUM
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
CHAPTER 25 CORRESPONDENCE
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
B. COMPONENTS OF A LETTER
2. Date
3. Method of Transmission
4. Inside Address
5. Reference Line
6. Greeting
7. Body of Letter
8. Closing
C. TYPES OF LETTERS
1. Confirming Letters
3. Demand Letters
4. Opinion Letters
5. E-mail
6. Social Media
7. Texting
Checklist
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Exercises
Appendix: Citation
Index
xxxi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
3-4 Pages from Lexis Screen Shot of United States v. Virginia, 135 L.Ed 2d 735
3-5 West’s North Eastern Reporter, Thompson v. Economy Super Marts, Inc., 581
3-6 West’s North Eastern Reporter, Thompson v. Economy Super Marts, Inc., 581
N.E.2d 885 (Ill. App. Ct. 1991), PDF Report from Westlaw
xxxii
3-10 Finding a Case in Westlaw
4-5 Sample Page from West’s Illinois Digest 2d Descriptive Word Index
4-8 West Key Number System: Revised and Former Key Number
6-2 Topic Outline for Easements and Licenses at 25 Am. Jur. 2d 668 (2014)
6-4 Sample Page: Westlaw Volume 25 Am. Jur. 2d § 79 Showing All Updates
6-5 Sample Page: Westlaw Am. Jur. 2d General Index, Easements, Sample
7-1 Page from Decision in U.S. Reports That Discusses the Fourth
Amendment
7-9 U.S.C.A General Index Showing the Entry “Wool,” Accessed on Westlaw
xxxiii
7-11 Pages from Decision in the Federal Reporter That Cites to 15 U.S.C. § 68
7-12 Sample Page Showing 2020 Pocket Part Entry for Volume 15 U.S.C.A.
7-13 Sample Page Showing Vermont Statutes Online 9 V.S.A. § 2698 available
at http://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/
8-2 Sample Pages from U.S.C.C.A.N. Showing the Legislative History of Pub. L.
No. 96-242
8-3 Congress.gov: Sample Page from 117th Congress Showing a Senate Bill to
9-6 Reader Aids of the Federal Register Page with C.F.R. Parts Affected Shown
18-6 Shila Morganroth, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Susan Whitall and The Evening News
Association, Inc.
xxxiv
PREFACE
you have adequately mastered legal research and writing skills. This
legal research and writing, teaching you how to avoid the dead ends
performing research using a computer. You will also learn how to use
will learn how they are interrelated and how to find the best sources
relevant law, both for and against the client’s position. Having
paralegals brief cases expedites the research process. Delegating
memorandum,
xxxvi
the questions presented statement, the brief answer, and the facts
statement. You will learn how to identify the legal issues and relevant
applies to a case and then state it in writing (citing more than one
consistently.
skills you will use every day as a paralegal. Also, the examples and
presented in the book and provide you with practical applications for
paralegal. This edition provides Net Notes to help you navigate the
writing skills. You will want to refer to the guidelines and concepts in
this book throughout your career as you continue to expand in
November 2021
Andrea B. Yelin
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
revisions of the text and the teacher’s manual and for countless
hours spent guiding us. Thanks to Lisa Wehrle for her great job
copyediting the first and second editions of this text. Thanks to Dana
Wilson and Nicholas Lasoff for editing the eighth edition, and thanks
edition. Thank you to Lisa Connery for your help with the copyediting
her work on the sixth edition, to Julie Grady and Rebecca Logan for
their assistance with the fifth edition, to Candice Adams for her
Barbara Roth for their editing and additional help with the text. Thank
you to Dave Herzig, Steve Silverstein, and Lou McGuire for their terrific
this book.
xxxviii
for all of your assistance past and present. A special debt of gratitude
goes to Fred LeBaron, once again, for his invaluable wise counsel and
professional guidance.
Library.
programs.
direction, and support led to the first edition of this text and ultimately
this revised text as well as individuals who helped with our text Basic
Legal Writing for Paralegals, a project that led to some of the revisions
in this text.
Lisa Wehrle, Joan Horan, John Lyman, Katie Byrne Butcher, and
Kaesmene Banks for their assistance with our books. We also thank
our students who have helped us to hone the text and the exercises.
Their writing and use of the exercises helped form the skeleton for
the book and then mold its contents. Their continued use of the book
than we ever could teach them, and we appreciate all that they have
done. Some of our students who deserve special thanks for their
Thanks to Terri Rudd, David Harris, Marc Steer, the late Debbie
Freudenheim, and Linda Kahn for their insightful ideas and assistance
xxxix
Illustrations 3-5, 3-6, 3-9, and 3-10. Reprinted with permission of Thomson Reuters.
Illustrations 4-1, 4-3, 4-5, 4-6, 4-7, 4-8, 4-9, 4-10. Reprinted with permission of
Thomson Reuters.
llustrations 5-1, 5-2, 5-3, and 5-4. Reprinted with the permission of LexisNexis. For
Tänä iltana tehtiin retki Ulriksdal'iin, jonka pihaan tuo pitkä rekijono
pysähtyi, ja lyhtyen valossa riensi tämä kuninkaan itse valitsema
seurue neuvottuihin pukemahuoneisin, joissa kukin kiirehti
pukeumaan niihin vaatteisin, jotka olivat määrätyt tanssiaisiin, joita
kuningas tänä iltana oli käskenyt toimeenpanemaan.
- Siihen sanon, että vaikka hän olisi kuinka kaunis hyvänsä, täytyy
hänellä kuitenkin olla yksi vika.
— Mikähän se olisi?
— Ei, hän vaan epäili sekä näytti epäröivän, ja minä päätin pyytää
teitä kehoittamaan häntä siihen, koska tunnen teidän mielenne
lujuuden ja minulla sitäpaitsi on tärkeitä valtiollisia syitä tämän
naimisen toteuttamiseen.