IDS 4001 - Pre-Law Capstone (Hoffman)

Most people think of "the law" as laws that are passed by the legislature, but in reality the law is a complex interplay of three types of law. These types of law typically follow the structure of the jurisdiction's government. Therefore, in the United States the types of law are:

• Statutory Law: laws passed by a legislative body, such as the United States Congress or the Georgia General Assembly. 
   
• Administrative Law: decisions, rules, and regulations made by administrative agencies which specify how they will carry out legislation.  A good example is the United States Postal Service or the Environmental Protection Agency. 
   
• Case Law: court decisions, usually opinions written by appellate courts, which are binding law on the lower courts in the jurisdiction.

• synopsis
  • similar to an article abstract
• holdings
  • how case was decided, what judges considered
• Westlaw headnotes
  • pertinent laws related to decision
• flags
  • yellow flag means some findings in dispute ( Negative treatment for following cases)
  • red flag means overturned
• History tab
  • trajectory the case took through the courts
• Citing References
  • similar to Cited By
• Table of Authorities
  • citations or references

Pros

• United States Supreme Court (since 1791)
• U.S. Courts of Appeals and U.S. District Courts (since 1923)
• supreme courts and intermediate appellate courts from all states (since 1950)
• better result relevancy than Westlaw
• citation service that allows you to find subsequent cases and legal articles

Cons

• not often updated so cases may have been withdrawn from court
• does not include unpublished cases, statutes, table opinions, or reference support

When using GoogleScholar for legal research, remember to click Case Law as a results limiter. You can then narrow down by a specific court, if you wish.

To see subsequent and related cases, click the Cited By link under the relevant case law.

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