This week in the Law Library we’re looking at more bar exam resources, reviewing more basic legal research skills for summer, continuing to celebrate Disability Pride Month, and previewing Ohio Supreme Court oral arguments.
Bar Exam Study Resources
Congratulations! You have made it through law school but now the bar exam looms. Don’t worry, the Law Library’s got your back. When you’ve caught your breath and you’re ready to start your bar studying, we have resources that can help. Check out our Bar Exam Research Guide.
The July 2024 bar examination will be administered at the Roberts Centre, 123 Gano Road, Wilmington, Ohio July 30-31, 2024. The Holiday Inn Roberts Centre room block opens on May 14, 2024, at 11 am. Learn more at: Ohio Bar Exam
5 More Resources to Help You Study for the Bar Exam
The Bar Exam is not a sprint, it’s a marathon so pace yourself! You can see the previous week’s featured bar exam resources on our July 15, July 1, June 24, June 17, June 10, June 3, May 28, and May 21. Check out this week’s Bar Exam Resource highlights below on what to do this last week before the bar exam.
What to Do the Week Before the Bar Exam (And What NOT to do…), JD Advising
Lifestyle Tips for Bar Prep: Week Before the Bar, Helix Bar Review
The Bar Exam is a Week Away – Now What?, Pass the Bar
The Week Before the Bar Exam: Top Tips, Kaplan Test Prep
Kerriann Stout, Don’t Forget To Do These 5 Things The Week Before The Bar Exam, Above the Law
Summer Legal Research Tips
Previously, we looked at:
Initial steps to take when you get a summer research project
Start by identifying the resources available to you at your place of summer employment and ask questions. Develop a research plan. Read more about developing a research plan on our Research Strategy & Documentation guide.
Then you may need to do background research about your issue before jumping into primary sources such as statutes and case law. A good secondary source can explain the law around your issue and cite you to primary sources. It can save you a lot of time and effort! Learn more about researching in secondary sources in our Researching Secondary Sources Guide or watch our videos on finding and searching within the various secondary source types.
Researching statutes in annotated codes
If your issue is statutory, you want to use an annotated code. An annotated code is a great research tool because it offers editorial enhancements such as: (1) cross references to related statutes and regulations; (2) more detailed historical notes, secondary source references; (3) if it is a Thomson Reuters code you will get topic and key number references to help you find cases; and (3) the case annotations.
Once in an annotated code, use the statutory finding tools like indexes, tables of contents, parallel reference tables, and the popular names table to find the statutory sections you need.
Updating and validating statutes
Update and validate your statutes by making sure that you are working with the most current version of a statute when researching a current issue and using Shepards and KeyCite to validate your statute and to identify any pending legislation that may impact your statute.
Historical and Superseded Codes
You can research historical codes using HeinOnline, Govinfo.gov, Bloomberg Law, Fastcase, Lexis, and Westlaw. You can also compare statutes on Lexis and Westlaw and be sure and always check the effective dates of statutes.
Sometimes a researcher is asked to find statutes from multiple jurisdictions on a particular topic. Take advantage of compiled statutory surveys such as (1) Lexis and Westlaw 50-state surveys; (2) Subject Compilations of State Laws on HeinOnline; (3) State Law Charts on Bloomberg Law and Smart Charts on VitalLaw; and (4) National Conference of State Legislatures. Read more about statutory surveys in our 50-State Surveys Guide.
Each headnote in a case published in Westlaw is assigned a topic and key number. These topic and key numbers can be used to find more cases on the same subject. Click on the link for the topic and key number assigned to the headnote in which you are interested and Westlaw will run a search and bring up all cases in their system that have been classified under that topic and key number. To find other cases that cite a particular headnote, click on the “Cases that cite this headnote” link located below the headnote summary of the point of law. Cases that cite a headnote consist of the citing references that specifically address that particular point of law in the case.
Lexis headnotes are still organized by broad topics and then progressively subdivided by narrower subjects, but Lexis headnote subjects tend to be broader concepts than the Westlaw key numbers. Also, Lexis headnotes do not editorialize, they actually lift language straight from the text of the case. Find more cases on a topic by clicking on the topic links assigned to the headnote. In Lexis, the topic links are above the headnote. More Like This Headnote appears at the end of a headnote, and gives you the ability to find cases that have headnotes that closely match the language or meaning of a headnote in your case. To find more cases that discuss the same point of law, click “Shepardize – Narrow by this Headnote.” This will show you all cases that cite to this case that reference the same issue as that headnote.
This week we will look at using citators for case law research and validation.
Citators
There are two main case law citators to verify the status of your case – on LexisNexis, it is Shepards and on Westlaw it is Keycite. Keyciting and shepardizing are also a method for finding other cases and secondary sources relevant to your topic. There are differences between the citator symbols used by Westlaw and Lexis, but as a general rule, in either Westlaw or Lexis cases with a red flag or red stop sign may no longer be good law and should not be relied upon without doing further research. Similarly, cases with a yellow flag or yellow triangle should be used with caution because they may have been distinguished by other court rulings. Remember, that you need to take into account the jurisdiction of your case and the cases citing your case in order to determine if your case is still good law. Do not rely on the symbols completely. There have been many instances where KeyCite and Shepards will give you different symbols for a case. Read the cases to make your own determination as to the citing case’s impact on your case.
When looking at a Shepard’s or KeyCite report, the most relevant symbol is the one before the case name/citation that you are Shepardizing or KeyCiting. The symbols before the other cases retrieved in the report indicate whether the cases that relied on your decision are still good law but they are not the symbol for your case.
Lexis Shepard’s Symbols
Red Octagon: Warning Strong Negative Treatment Indicated
The red Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that citing references in the Shepard’s® Citations Service contain strong negative history or treatment of your case (for example, overruled by or reversed).
Circle with an exclamation point: Warning Strong Negative Treatment Indicated
The red Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that citing references in the Shepard’s® Citations Service contain strong negative treatment of the section (for example, the section may have been found to be unconstitutional or void).
Orange Square with a Q: Questioned: Validity questioned by citing reference
The orange Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that the citing references in the Shepard’s® Citations Service contain treatment that questions the continuing validity or precedential value of your case because of intervening circumstances, including judicial or legislative overruling
Yellow Triangle: Possible negative treatment indicated
The yellow Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that citing references in the Shepard’s® Citations Service contain history or treatment that may have a significant negative impact on your case (for example, limited or criticized by).
Green Diamond with Plus Sign: Positive treatment indicated
The green Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that citing references in the Shepard’s® Citations Service contain history or treatment that has a positive impact on your case (for example, affirmed or followed by).
Blue Octagon with an A: Citing references with analysis available
The blue “A” Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that citing references in the Shepard’s® Citations Service contain treatment of your case that is neither positive nor negative (for example, explained).
Blue Octagon with an I: Citation information available
The blue “I” Shepard’s Signal™ indicator indicates that citing references are available in the Shepard’s® Citations Service for your case, but the references do not have history or treatment analysis (for example, the references are law review citations).
Westlaw KeyCite Symbols
Red flag: Severe negative treatment
Indicates a document is no longer good law for at least one point of law.
Flag with Red Stripe: Overruled in part
Indicates a document has been overruled in part but not completely.
Yellow flag: Negative treatment
Indicates a document has some negative treatment
Blue-Striped flag
Indicates a document has been appealed to the US Courts of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court (excluding appeals originating from agencies).
Overruling Risk warning: Negative treatment
Indicates a document may no longer be good for at least one point of law based on its reliance on an overruled or otherwise invalid prior decision.
Where to Find More Information on Researching Cases
Don’t forget that you can always find out more about researching cases in our Researching Cases Guide or watch our videos on cases.
July Is Disability Pride Month!
Disability Pride Flag. A black flag with a lightning bolt of blue, yellow, white, red, and green. Source: Ann Magill/Public Domain
About Disability Pride Month
Disability Pride Month is an annual worldwide observance holiday during the month of July. It promotes awareness of disability as an identity, a community, a culture & the positive pride felt by disabled people. It directly challenges systematic ableism and discrimination. President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law in 1990 and in July of that same year, the first Disability Pride Day was celebrated in Boston.
This month, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights invites you to take part in the #BeCounted campaign. The #BeCounted campaign encourages lawyers with disabilities across the country to add themselves to the ABA’s U.S. map.
5 Resources to Learn More about Accessibility & Disability Issues
Disability Friendly: How to Move from Clueless to Inclusive (UC e-book)
Although progress has been made around equality for many marginalized groups, people with disabilities are still massively underrepresented in organizations’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts. People with disabilities make up at least 15% of the world’s population yet are still too often overlooked. This book explains the potential of disabled employees, how to create a culture of inclusion, and, in the process, help people with disabilities become proud contributors.
Peter Blanck, Disability Law and Policy (Concepts and Insights)
Available to law students through the West Academic subscription, the second edition of Disability Law and Policy provides an updated overview of the major themes and insights in disability law and serves as a compelling compendium of stories about how our legal system has responded to the needs of impacted individuals. It also charts significant concerns about the welfare of people with disabilities that have been raised by the turbulent years of the pandemic and the rapid developments of technologies that are not always accessible to all who need to use them. In the thirty-plus years since the 1990 enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, huge strides have been made in protecting and improving the rights of people with disabilities to have equal access to all aspects of the worlds around them, both physical and virtual. But these worlds are still all-too-often designed and built without considering the fact that nearly every human being has experienced, or will experience, at least a period of “disability” during their lifetime that makes accessing everyday constructs of our society difficult or impossible. So the work continues, led both by long-term advocates and people who were not yet born when the ADA was signed into law.
Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability (UC e-book)
This book explores the concept of “occupation” in disability well beyond traditional clinical formulations of disability: it considers disability not in terms of pathology or impairment, but as a range of unique social identities and experiences that are shaped by visible or invisible diagnoses/impairments, socio-cultural perceptions and environmental barriers and offers innovative ideas on how to apply theoretical training to real world contexts. Inspired by disability justice and “Disability Occupy Wall Street / Decolonize Disability” movements in the US and related movements abroad, this book builds on politically engaged critical approaches to disability that intersect occupational therapy, disability studies and anthropology.
The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Communication (UC e-book)
The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Communication covers a broad spectrum of topics related to how we perceive and understand disability and the language, constructs, constraints and communication behavior that shape disability discourse within society. The essays and original research presented in this volume address important matters of disability identity and intersectionality, broader cultural narratives and representation, institutional constructs and constraints, and points related to disability justice, advocacy, and public policy. In doing so, this book brings together a diverse group of over 40 international scholars to address timely problems and to promote disability justice by interrogating the way people communicate not only to people with disabilities, but also how we communicate about disability, and how people express themselves through their disabled identity.
Mark C. Weber, Understanding Disability Law
Available to UC law students through the LexisNexis Digital Library, Understanding Disability Law discusses important statutory and constitutional issues relating to disability discrimination. It provides analysis of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Fair Housing Act Amendments, and other laws as they relate to the controversial issues of disability rights. The book discusses the leading cases on each of the major topics of disability law and suggests ways of thinking about unresolved questions and debates over legal policy. The fourth edition adds new information on every important topic. It includes thorough discussion of the Supreme Court’s Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller ruling about emotional distress damages in ADA, Section 504, and ACA cases, as well as the Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools decision concerning exhaustion of administrative remedies in special education cases. It provides new sources on the intersection of race and disability and on accommodations in family unification services for parents with disabilities.
July Arguments at the Ohio Supreme Court
You can view the live stream of oral arguments on the Court’s website or see them after the arguments take place in the Ohio Channel archives.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
State v. Miree & State v. Duncan – whether a trial court is required to apply the amended Stand Your Ground Law, which eliminated the duty to retreat for a self-defense claim, in instructing the jury on a self-defense claim when the alleged crime occurred before the effective date of the amendments. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
In the Matter of the Letter of Notification Application of Columbia Gas of Ohio Inc. for the Ford Street Pipeline Project – whether the Ohio Power Siting Board’s Board’s automatic approval of Columbia Gas’s accelerated application was unlawful and unreasonable because the Board improperly deferred to Columba Gas and failed to determine that the Project’s impacts satisfy Ohio Rev. Code sec. 4906.10(A)(2),(3). Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
State v. Kyles – whether the prosecution must prove that a dog or cat was cared for or was under somebody’s physical control in order to meet the definition of a companion animal for a conviction of felony cruelty to animals under Ohio Rev. Code sec. 959.131. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
State v. Dunn – whether evidence that a juvenile lives in a residence and was present when the drug trafficking was discovered is enough to support a conviction for trafficking in the “vicinity of a juvenile.” Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
State v. Riley – whether a trial court commits an error when it immediately adopts the proposed judgment entry of one party without affording the other party a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
Est. of Cook v. Montville Twp. – whether under Ohio Rev. Code 2744.02, the Montville Township is immune from civil liability for the death of a motorist traveling on a county road who was struck by a falling tree partially situated on parkland owned by the township. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
State v. Smith – whether statements made to police by a domestic violence victim in an ambulance are admissible as nontestimonial statements made to meet an ongoing emergency or if they were testimonial in nature and thus hearsay. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
State v. Kennedy – whether a sentencing court can grant judicial release on prison terms imposed by different courts or only for the prison term imposed by that court. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
