ALR Student’s Corner: Decoding the law behind a ubiquitous experience

Experience with K-12 education is nearly ubiquitous. Almost everyone remembers their own experiences, some more fondly than others, sitting in class, working on assignments, and going to football games or senior prom. Many of us will broaden these experiences by sending our children to schools, or making careers in the K-12 setting.  However, despite this shared experience, not many of us have taken the time to understand the legal considerations that shape schools; by dictating the length and content of the classes, the assignments required for completion, and the content allowed at school events, almost every occurrence within the school day is proscribed by law. To understand these issues and more, Education Law: an Essential Guide for Attorneys, Teachers, Administrators, Parents, and Students is a great place to start.

LOCATION:

Education Law: an Essential Guide for Attorneys, Teachers, Administrators, Parents, and Students is located in the Treatise section of the Charlotte School of Law Library on the Environmental, Healthcare, Education, and Entertainment Law Shelf. Locating the call number, KF4119.G47, from the Library catalog, using the search terms “education law,” takes you right to the treatise.

CONTENTS:

Contained in a single volume, the second edition of Education Law was published in 2007. The resource contains a Table of Contents, References Page, Endnotes Page, and Index. The Table of Contents is divided into 20 broad areas of education law (i.e. Fourth Amendment—Search and Seizure) with more specific, related issues underneath (i.e. Drug-sniffing Dogs). Each chapter also begins with this delineation to allow for more targeted reading without returning to the Table of Contents. The Endnotes section provides the citation for many important cases related to education law and sentence summaries of many of the holdings. Summaries of each case, instead of only a few, would have been more helpful. Finally, there is a general index that provides an appropriate amount of terms and cases.

HOW TO SEARCH:

To illustrate how to search this treatise, suppose you learn that your child’s high school will institute random drug testing of all students next year. You see this as an invasion of your child’s privacy and want to challenge the policy.

Armed with Education Law, you begin by checking the Table of Contents. You immediately notice that “Chapter 10: Drugs, Weapons, and Zero Tolerance Policies.” Upon scanning the sub-topics, however, you realize that the chapter deals with the repercussions of drug use, not testing for drug use. You know that your child is perfect and would never actually use drugs, so you are not concerned with the punishment. Instead, you want to focus on the privacy concerns of allowing random testing.

You then turn to the Index and search for “drug testing.” Luckily, this term appears and provides for more specificity: 1) of student athletes and 2) of students engaged in non-sports extracurricular activities. Both of these are located in “Chapter 11: Search and Seizure.” The relevant pages in Chapter 11 provide an overview of recent cases that deal with schools’ drug testing of students, with and without reasonable suspicion. Therefore, it provides a metric by which to measure, and probably challenge, the school’s proposed policy.

CONCLUSION:

Education Law provides an easy-to-follow introduction to areas of educational law with both analysis of case law and relevant statutes. To supplement this information, visit Education Law Center, ACLU’s Students! Know Your Rights, and Georgetown Law Library’s Education Law Research Guide.

CITATION: Gerstein, R. (2007). Education law: an essential guide for attorneys, teachers, administrators, parents, and students.  Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company: Tucson, Arizona.

~ C. Matthew Ferguson, Class of 2013 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: Workplace Discrimination, Privacy and Security in an Age of Terrorism

  Introduction:    

Treatises offer a wealth of background information on a particular topic, and should be one of a researcher’s very first authorities to consult when dealing with a new issue. The aim of this post is to walk through how to locate and use a particular treatise dealing with employment law issues, Workplace Discrimination, Privacy and Security in an Age of Terrorism (2007), as well as the contents of this treatise.

How to Locate the Treatise:

To find the resource, head to the Charlotte School of Law Library, located at the Suttle campus, and follow the signs within the library through the glass doors to the treatises section. The call number for this particular treatise is KF3319.A2C67 (using the search terms “workplace discrimination” in the CSL Library catalog gets you here).  Within the row of compact shelving labeled “KF3315-KF3736,” the treatise is located on the first section of shelves to the left, on the middle shelf.

Content:

In a nutshell, Workplace Discrimination is a single volume treatise from 2007 that examines some of the more common employment discrimination issues with more of a focus on how the laws have been altered or interpreted differently since September 11, 2001 and the subsequent War on Terror. Because of the contextual focus, the treatise is of good size to give an adequate overview of the issues.

The treatise is organized into four distinct sections – Workplace Discrimination, Workplace Privacy, Collective Bargaining, and Physical and Emotional Security – and one main Table of Contents that displays the various subtopics under each section. The treatise does suffer, however, from the lack of an index. As such, it’s really up to the user’s knowledge of the general issues in determining how easily they will be able to locate material solely through the Table of Contents. The Table of Contents does an adequate job including buzzwords for topics, like “Workplace Stress,” “Profiling,” and “Labor-Management.”  However, it should be noted that these topics are scattered about to fit within the four categories above, and are not organized into a more traditional topic list that sort of builds on topics from the ground up. As such, I think this treatise should not be used as a first look into employment discrimination issues. Instead, I think researchers would be better suited using this treatise once they’ve already built a foundation of information on the topic and subtopics through a more traditional, straightforward treatise or other secondary source.

Navigating the Treatise:

Let’s say you have a client who is a few years away from retirement, but was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. As a result of the diagnosis, she also battles severe depression. The depression worsens the multiple sclerosis, and the multiple sclerosis worsens the depression. She has recently been in discussions with her employer over what she could and could not perform, and the employer has given her an ultimatum: continue doing the job she has done for many years, or have her employment terminated. What do you research the issue to best help your client?

As suggested above, I think the first step might be to consult a more traditional treatise to get an initial overview of the related issues. That way, when you’re ready to consult Workplace Discrimination, you shouldn’t have any trouble perusing the Table of Contents to find the relevant sections and chapters. Even without consulting another treatise first, however, you may be able to wing it and find your way by browsing the Table of Contents. Through an initial browsing of the content, Chapter 17 (page 501) – “Workplace Stress Claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act” – should immediately jump out. “Workplace Stress” would have been a difficult search term to come up with on my own, but the term “disability” from the chapter title grabbed my attention, as I would have likely used “mental disability” as an initial search term in an index, had the treatise included one. The good thing about this particular chapter is that it does not rely so heavily on the terrorism context, and is instead a more straightforward examination of workplace stress claims.

Conclusion:

Workplace Discrimination, Privacy and Security in an Age of Terrorism is an easy read, and deals with issues through an interesting lens. Because of the treatise’s niche-like status, it may not be the go-to secondary resource for employment discrimination.  However, I think the treatise works well as an advanced resource, undoubtedly helpful to anyone with facts even loosely involving terrorism or its impact on America’s culture and laws since September 11th.

Useful Alternatives:

While I don’t think there is great, free alternative to this treatise that provides employment discrimination information under such a lens as terrorism, there are plenty of alternatives that provide a wealth of information on employment discrimination issues in general. One such alternative, the American Civil Liberties Union, runs an employment discrimination blog, complete with up-to-date trending topics, key issues, videos, and more.

~ Zachary Oakes, Class of 2013 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: Family Law Litigation Guide with Forms

This blog post attempts to provide a brief overview of the treatise entitled Family Law Litigation Guide with Forms, which is published and updated by LexisNexis.  The treatise is available in print at the Charlotte School of Library in the treatise section, within the shelving for “Family Law.”  The search terms “family law litigation” in the CSL catalog gets you here with the call number KF 505.F354.  To date, the treatise consists of four volumes, inclusive of forty chapters, a Table of Cases, and an Index.   The Index is located at the back of the last volume, rather than in each volume.  Each volume is updated annually (typically in August or September of each year) with a “Publication Update” provided by LexisNexis.

Each chapter provides an in-depth discussion of the procedural and evidentiary rules for each topic (i.e. discovery, depositions, marital property, spousal support, child support, termination of parental rights, evidence, etc.) with citations to primary authority.  Additionally, each chapter contains a “Forms” section, which includes practice checklists, sample discovery, sample motions, and other family law forms.   There are multiple chapters for each topic, and each chapter has its own table of contents at the front.  For example, discovery is covered over seven chapters (Scope, Discovery Devices, Planning Devices, Interrogatories, and Production of Documents).  This makes the treatise a very comprehensive guide to each aspect of family law.  This treatise would be particularly useful to an attorney who is new to practicing family law because it provides an overview of each topic, cites to primary authority, and contains forms which are a great starting point.

As a law student, the organization of the Index makes sense; however, it would be difficult for a lay person to navigate.  The index is organized using broad topics, such as “Child Support”, “Abandonment”, “Briefs”, “Attorney Client Privilege”, and “Cross Examination”.  Some of this terminology is not familiar to lay people.  Under each topic, there are several smaller sub-issues arranged alphabetically.  If a researcher is successful at navigating the Index, or knows enough about a topic to generate specific legalese search terms, the Index can be very useful; however, I found it just as easy to browse topics by Chapter, since each chapter is so specific and contains its own table of contents.

Overall, this treatise is comprehensive and user-friendly, and the forms are a great supplemental tool. On the negative side, the treatise is expensive, particularly for a solo practitioner or small-size firm.  As such, if a lawyer does not have access to this resource through a law library, he or she may have to find a more cost effective, alternate source.

For North Carolina attorneys, the Rosen Law firm, which has offices in Raleigh, Charlotte, Chapel Hill, and Durham, provides several great resources that are available for free online.  The website provides access to resources for two categories: (1) Child Issues (which covers Child Custody and Child Support) and (2) Spousal Issues (which covers Absolute Divorce, Alimony and Support, Domestic Violence, Mediation, and Property Division).

Each topic contains several additional, useful resources, including step-by-step guides, articles, forms, videos, podcasts, relevant statutes, and other tools such as payment calculators.  The website also contains a section where any person can post questions to which a lawyer from the firm will respond.  This resource can be useful for attorneys and is more user-friendly for lay people.  In fact, I have used this source as a lay person, prior to having any knowledge of family law in North Carolina.  While the source is user-friendly, it provides a more general overview of major issues, but is not nearly as comprehensive as the LexisNexis treatise discussed above.  Additionally, practitioners may find it time consuming to have to weed through questions and other postings by lay people that are case specific, and not general practice questions.  Overall, however, it is a great free resource for general information for lawyers and lay people, or a great place to begin a research assignment for a general overview.

~Jessica E. Price, Class of 2013~

ALR Student’s Corner: North Carolina Contract Law

You Will Be a Transactional Lawyer – Whether You Wanted to Be One or Not

When I decided to attend law school, I had visions of myself standing in front of a jury box waxing eloquent about the merits of my client’s claim or defense. I would NOT be one of “those” transactional lawyers who spent their time agonizing over just the right word to place in some boring clause, within an even more boring contract. Surprise! I realize now that almost every lawyer will be a transactional lawyer, and will be one on a fairly regular basis. The reason for this is that nearly all agreements, reached by the attorneys for parties involved in a legal action, must eventually be reduced to writing. In order to achieve the best result for your client, you will want to be the attorney to volunteer to draft the agreement. You will agonize over the right word, because there is an art to drafting a contract.

Last semester, I reluctantly began a contracts drafting class with Professor Hefferan in order to fulfill my advanced writing component. Though I began the class with something less than enthusiasm, I am now convinced that this has been the most valuable class I have taken in law school. Not everyone has had the opportunity in law school to take an in depth course in contract drafting. Because of this fact, the treatise North Carolina Contract Law (2nd ed. 2001) and its cumulative supplement (2012) can be a valuable resource for attorneys required to draft a contract or agreement on behalf of client.  They can be found in the CSL Library by using the call number KFN7550.H88, or by searching with the keywords “North Carolina Contract” in the Library’s catalog.

What the Treatise Has to Offer

Lawyers practice within distinct jurisdictions, and the quirks of the jurisdiction as they apply to an area of law are important, even vital to practitioners. This treatise focuses its attention on North Carolina’s requirements for contracts as they are informed by state statutes, the North Carolina Supreme Court, and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The first part of the book addresses the basic elements of contract formation and contract enforcement. The second part addresses contracts for the sale of goods under the Uniform Commercial Code, which North Carolina has adopted. This treatise is easy to search and use as it is divided by section numbers comprised of the chapter number followed by a topic number (i.e. Chapter 3, topic 44 is designated as §3-44 and is an introduction to the topic of contracts signed under seal).

The Importance of Jurisdiction Specific Research; Contract Under Seal

Part one of this volume is filled with references to North Carolina case law that will help expand an attorney’s understanding of some of the unique features of the state’s approach to contract law. For example, North Carolina is a jurisdiction that has unique statutory and case law surrounding contracts that are signed under seal.

I decided to create a brief research exercise within the volume related to the signing of a contract under seal. Both the table of contents and index contain information to help a lawyer or other legal professional easily navigate this topic within the treatise. You can find the topic of seals quickly within the table of contents; other terms useful to search, such as “seal,” “statute of limitations” and “consideration,” are contained in the index. What constitutes a seal and the implications of its use, or lack of use, are fully covered. Quite important to both plaintiffs and defendants in North Carolina would be the knowledge that generally a contract signed under seal has a statute of limitations that is ten years, rather than the normal three-year statute of limitations applied to contracts.

Conclusion

This treatise is an invaluable tool for those in the legal profession who draft, or seek to enforce or interpret contracts within the jurisdiction of North Carolina. I believe it is so useful that it is a text many legal professionals should consider purchasing for their own library. It is available from LexisNexis for $217.00. With the treatise in hand, North Carolina case law noted within it can be retrieved for free through the North Carolina Courts website. Statutes referenced in the text can be found on the internet for free as well through the North Carolina General Assembly website. Additionally, the internet provides many websites where sample contracts can be viewed, one example is www.onecle.com. While it is almost always helpful to have a template to follow, templates do not explain the law or the consequences of failing to understand contracts law in a particular jurisdiction.

~ Kathleen Vogel, Class of 2013 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: The Environmental Law Practice Guide — An Explosion of Environmental Exposition

Prior to exploring the Environmental Law Practice Guide, I often wondered—why would I use a treatise to research a legal topic when I can use online research tools such as Westlaw or LexisNexis? What possible benefits could there be in physically picking up a print version of something I can find online? So, I picked up Volume 1 of the treatise and flipped through it and had an instantaneous moment of clarity – this treatise had it all, and I simply could not believe it.

Treatises generally provide a neutral, yet broad scope on a specific legal topic, while simultaneously providing historical analysis, statutory authority, and some narrow topical depth. Some treatises also feature forms or useful practice tools. I expected this when I chose the Environmental Law Practice Guide. I also expected general information about each type of environmental law. Instead, I found oceans of information that would ordinarily take weeks or months to compile without the help of this multi-volume series.

Why on earth was I so excited over this treatise? Perhaps because I spent seven years of my former professional life as an environmental consultant for industrial manufacturing companies working on so many different environmental and legal issues that took teams of people to keep all of them straight. Each client had his own specific set of environmental issues: permit requirements; reporting requirements; waste disposal, health and safety issues; treatment, storage and disposal concerns; and on-and-on. In these eleven volumes, I found, not only the holy grail of information, the relevant and current law for each type of environmental issue, but also forms, definitions, acronyms, history, and requirements. A wave of jealousy hit me as I realized how “past me” would have completely benefited from this resource as a consultant, and how much time “future me” as an attorney would save (insert maniacal laugh).

To locate this resource, go to the “Treatise” section of the law library and find call number KF3375.Z95E58. This is an eleven-volume practice guide, which spans four Units covering both state and federal environmental law. The Units are: 1) Procedures, 2) Environmental Quality, 3) Regulated Substances and Waste Management, and 4) States. The Units are then broken down into forty-one Chapters, such as Hazardous Waste, Endangered Species, or Environmental Impact Statements. The Chapters are further broken down into Parts: Part A Legal Background; Part B Procedural Guide; Part C Forms; Part D Reference Guide. Each environmental topic or Chapter is laid out in the exact same manner, even though the contents of each Chapter are very different to one another. The entire organizational format is reflected in the General Table of Contents. The pocket part, or the “Publication Update,” which is updated several times per year, is located at the very front of the first volume and reflects the most current updates.

Additionally, there is a “How to Use This Publication” which is particularly helpful, because the resource has grown in size considerably as the area of law has grown to impact so many different types of transactions. The treatise also includes an Internet Directory after each topical chapter for free and useful internet sources narrowly tailored to the Chapter. Overall, this organization is ideal for each environmental topic because one client may have more than one issue and the legal background, procedural guide, forms, and references are all in the same location for easy and quick access.

In the last volume, I found something incredibly useful—an acronym table that lists and defines over 1,400 of the pesky environmental acronyms that seem to plague this field of law. The only critique I have about this treatise is the lack of visual rhetoric, photos, color, or graphics. But honestly, environmental attorneys, consultants, or “science-types” do not need the fluff and prefer to get to the statistics, science, answers, and the law, which this resource provides in abundance.

To put this treatise to the test, I conducted a brief research experience on a specific environmental topic: the definition of hazardous waste. This may seem like an easy topic to search, but under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the definition of hazardous waste can be different depending on how the materials are used, re-used, recycled, or reclaimed. Locating this topic under Chapter 26, Hazardous Waste, was very simple. I used the search terms, “hazardous waste,” “RCRA,” and “solid waste,” which all lead directly to Chapter 26. The legal background defines the statutory authority and many cases that describe the various interpretations.

Overall, this treatise covers the entire field of environmental law and can be an invaluable tool for attorneys, regulators, corporate and facility managers, and environmental consultants—all who deal with these real environmental problems. Environmental Law Practice Guide may not be able to answer every environmental issue, but this treatise will certainly lead the researcher in the right direction, and not on a fishing expedition.

~ Kelly Johnson, Class of 2013 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: North Carolina Trial Judges’ Bench Book

Do you need information regarding divorce or simple assault in North Carolina?  Need annotations to case law regarding a violation of a 50B order or defrauding an innkeeper?  Before you Google it or browse the North Carolina General Statutes, try looking first at the North Carolina Trial Judges’ Bench Book.

The Bench Book can be found in the Reference Carolinas section of the Charlotte School of Law Library.  It is contained in two large, white, three-ring binders with dark red lettering on the cover and spine.  The North Carolina Bench Book, as the name suggests, contains information on North Carolina law.  Volume one contains information on family law, and volume two contains information on judicial powers, duties, and conduct; criminal law and procedure; and civil trial and procedure.  The table of contents in each volume is specific to that volume, but also contains a basic outline of the other volume.  Each is broken down into chapters or subtopics of the main subject.  For example, the family law volume contains chapters on divorce, child custody, alimony, and equitable distribution.  Each chapter is also divided into sections which can be found in the table of contents at the beginning of each chapter. For example, the chapter on child custody is divided into sections such as venue, jurisdiction, and the definition of custody.  There is also an index at the end of each chapter and common forms which can be copied and filled out.  I feel the sections are efficiently organized because a researcher can identify a main issue and then navigate through its respective sections and subsections in a very precise manner.

The School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill publishes the Bench Book.  The School also publishes the North Carolina Crimes book, which our library also has.  The information contained in the Bench Book is updated on a rotating basis as needed.  The Library’s copy is from 2011.  In volume one, all the chapters but domestic violence and termination of parental rights were updated in the 2012 online version (available at
http://www.sog.unc.edu
).  Volume two is updated entirely through the 2011 print version.

Here is an example of how to use the Bench Book.

A client walks into your office and tells you that she is newly divorced and a mother with two young children.  While she and her ex-husband share joint physical custody, he is an alcoholic and, for this reason, she wants to be in control of major decisions affecting the kids.  After taking down some basic information, you assure her that you will research her situation and be in touch.  After she leaves, you decide to consult a copy of the Bench Book that you received as a gift for passing the bar.

The first step is to determine what volume applies to the given facts.  Since the situation involves a divorced couple and the major life decisions of two young children, volume one seems appropriate.  Flip to its table of contents and locate the page number for “Chapter 4 – Child Custody” since the client’s issue involves parental control over children.

Each of the Chapters has its own table of contents to help navigate through the various subsections.  For instance, “Chapter 4 – Child Custody” breaks down further into subtopics, like “definition of custody,” where you will find the definitions for both legal and physical custody.

The information here states that case law has held legal custody to include the decision-making process of parents and that a parent may have sole legal custody or joint legal custody.  Based on this information and the client’s request, you determine she is best served by pursuing an order for sole legal custody.  This same information could also have been found by searching the index at the end of the chapter.

The Bench Book is an all-in-one source for case law, statutory law, and forms in North Carolina.  You can find the same basic statutory information online at www.ncleg.net for free.  There is generally no free equivalent for case law materials; however, the law itself can occasionally be found on free legal websites such as
http://www.scfamilylaw.com
or by using Google Scholar.  The downside to both of these sources is their lack of annotations.  Finally, copies of forms can be found at the Mecklenburg County Self Serve Center or online at www.nccourts.org.

~ David Sherman, Class of 2013 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: Prosser on Torts

We speak often of legal luminaries at Charlotte School of Law.  All of them reside inside our library.  Their works, ideals, thoughts, and aspirations for our profession are all found on the shelves of our library waiting for your approval or disdain.  

One such great thinker is Dean William L. Prosser; his work Prosser on Torts stands high in the world of treatises [W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts (5^th ed. 1984) (call number  KF1250 .P73 1984)].  If you want a complete and thorough understanding of the law of torts and its ramifications on society, pick up this amazing treatise by a true giant in our profession.

Prosser on Torts is laid out in a chapter format, starting with a thorough introduction into the law of torts, winding through the intentional torts, negligence, products liability, privacy, and ending with immunities.   Each of the 25 chapters contains a pithy review of the law accompanied by an often-time acerbic wit.  It is also a fundamental road map to our law and how it was shaped.  Don’t overlook the fact that this book, in earlier editions, contained our nation’s nascent ideas of privacy, well before Griswold and New York Times v. Sullivan.  Chapter 20, Privacy, provides an insightful and thorough examination of an area of law that would not come into fashion until 20 years after Prosser’s death.  Yet, his thoughts and words still led our formation of this emerging body of law.

As Prosser notes in his chapter on Privacy, “(p)rior to the year 1890, no English or American court had ever granted relief expressly based upon the invasion of (privacy).  Id. p. 849.  Prosser forwards his argument for recognition of a “right of privacy” by announcing what is now common knowledge among law students: the elements necessary to prove the four privacy torts.  It is in this treatise that we find our common understanding for the elementary constructs of privacy. “It is clear, however, that there must be something in the nature of prying or intrusion, and that mere noises which disturb a church congregation, or bad manners, harsh names, and insulting gestures in public are not enough.  It is clear also that the intrusion must be something which would be offensive or objectionable to a reasonable person.”  Yes, there he is, the root of our most favored of persons: the reasonable man.  We owe it to Prosser.

If you fail to pick up this treatise, you’ll also miss some great quotes that all your older attorney peers have committed to memory long ago.  “Assault and battery go together like ham and eggs.”  Classic Prosser.  “The thing speaks for itself, (referring to the doctrine of res ipsa) but what the hell is it saying.”  You simply can’t miss out on legal explanations like that.

Prosser on Torts is also a great research tool.   Each topic segment contains a list of Westlaw Reference Tools that can be used to find more authority on a given topic.  Id. at 7.  For instance, the Introduction lists “379k1” (Use and Occupation of Realty) as an example of a Digest Topic and Key Number.   Plugging these into Westlaw Classic or WestlawNext will produce a wealth of additional resources to expand your research.   Accompanying this example in Prosser is the following Terms and Connectors Boolean search string: topic(torts) & reasonabl* unreasonabl* /20 interfer! /20 interest*.  This search in Westlaw Classic returns over 450 federal and state cases and numerous secondary sources in the results.  To narrow these, a researcher merely has to restrict by source or jurisdiction or use the “Locate in Results” feature.

Another time saving research tool found in Prosser is the comprehensive appendix.  Appendix A provides a complete, albeit dated, detailed introduction to Westlaw Classic researching methods for specific torts-related searching.  This is a great resource to perfect Boolean searching.  Id. at 1082.  The Index also provides a useful tool when a general topic search is all that is required.  If you know a general topic, the Index will lead you to a treasure trove of sources within the chapters that will prove to be worthy for even the most stingy of research budgets.

Prosser on Torts proves that blind searching with Google or Bing may be “free and easy” but not necessarily free or easy.  Using a treatise to narrow and target your research will likely produce more relevant and efficient results.  The competitive job market demands that we reduce our hours of research and, at the same time, increase the relevancy of our search results.  Pick up and use Prosser on Torts and you may well be on your way to that sought after title of research guru.

~ Adam Thornton, L ‘14 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: Police Misconduct Law and Litigation

The word “treatise” made me cringe my first semester of law school.  Coming from a business background, I had no idea what a treatise was other than a text recommended by my professor.  After receiving exposure to treatises through a practical exercise, their value as a free research tool became apparent to me.  This post will examine a criminal law treatise and is intended to help illustrate how using a treatise can easily enhance legal research or knowledge of a specific area of law.

Police officers play a prominent role in American society. They help ensure order by enforcing federal, state and local laws.  As a result, police officers are equipped with extreme power, but they pose a threat to society if their power is not restricted and monitored.  The problems created by police misconduct are of particular concern for individuals of a minority race, class or gender, but have the potential to affect any American as a result of a violation of our Constitutional Rights.  For example, the Federal Government’s “War on Drugs” has had a huge impact on civil liberties as police officers and judges have ignored the Bill of Rights to enforce narcotics laws.  The potential dangers of police misconduct are clear, but how is it handled in our judicial system? In order to create a greater understanding of this area of the law, a good starting place is the treatise, Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation (3^rd ed. 2012).

Locating the Treatise

In order to utilize the treatise, you must first physically find it in the library.  The book is located in the Treatise section in the northwest section of the Charlotte Law library.  Once you have identified the call number (KF1307 Av38p) from the Library catalog and located the treatise section of the library, proceed to the Torts / Products Liability shelf.  The book is about three-quarters of the way down the aisle on the left hand side, third shelf from the top.

Contents of the Treatise

Now that you know how to locate the book, we can explore its contents.   The book is contained in a single volume that was initially printed in 1977; two additional editions followed, the most recent in 2012.  The book contains a Table of Contents, Index, Sample Pleadings and Table of Cases which allows for practicing attorneys to quickly locate relevant subject areas.  This book provides an in-depth analysis of each step in the police misconduct proceedings process from actionable conduct to the charge of the jury.  There is discussion of each important litigation step supplemented by relevant case law.

Research Exercise

We now turn our attention to using the treatise as a secondary source.  For this exercise, imagine that you are a summer associate at a Criminal Law firm.  You are asked to take notes in a client consultation.  The client, a 22-year-old female, was Tasered after police responded to a noise complaint at her apartment.  She was charged with aiding and abetting alcohol to minors and resisting arrest.  After the meeting, your task is to find case law discussing the reasonableness of the use of a Taser.  The firm has access to Westlaw, but is charged for each search; so, to minimize costs, you must start your research with secondary sources at the CSL Law Library.  To start your research, you look for “Taser” in the index of Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation.  Unfortunately, the term is not listed in the table of contents (TOC) or the index.  Before turning to a different secondary source, you try “Excessive force” as a search term, and are then directed to various subparts of chapter 2.  Confused about where in chapter 2 to start, you reference the TOC and a section labeled, “Excessive Force and Physical Brutality.”  Having isolated the relevant portion of the book, you flip to the section and find a discussion on the use of Tasers by police officers (p. 115).  This section provides a good starting point for your research because the discussion of the law relating to the use of Tasers is current and, equally important, annotated to key federal authorities that can be used on Westlaw to create a custom digest.

Conclusion

Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation is a good resource for any criminal attorney dealing with police misconduct, because the treatise clearly and logically lays out the entire judicial process related to this kind of litigation.  A notable feature of the treatise that I found very helpful is the sample complaints section located in Appendix B.  However, the authors might have assisted researchers further by providing more charts and checklists throughout the book (like those found in Appendix A).  Charts help engage the reader and highlight key concepts in the text.

In order to supplement the materials in the treatise, a reader should visit The National Police Accountability Project website.  The website is free and updated by an organization of plaintiffs’ attorneys who work on police misconduct cases with the intent to end police abuse.

Citations

Michael Avery et al, Police Misconduct Law and Litigation (West Publ’g, 3^rd ed. 2012)

National Police Accountability Project,
http://www.nlg-npap.org

 ~ Brian Dunaway, Class of 2014 ~

ALR Student’s Corner: Regulations.gov Blog

The Regulations.gov is a great place to locate information on the development of Federal regulations (e.g Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Environmental Protection Agency) issued by the United States government. This site provides helpful information regarding various rules, proposed rules, and public comments on regulatory issues that affect the entire society.  Regulations.gov is managed by the eRulemaking Program Management Office with the assistance of several federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency. The eRulemaking Program was created in 2002 as an E-Government project. Additionally, Regulations.gov aims to promote more efficient and effective rulemaking through public involvement.

Searching Regulations.gov.

 

Let’s research whether the Bureau of Prison has enacted or proposed any new rules that deal with overcrowding and housing conditions in federal prisons.  First, we need to click the Advanced Search link located in the middle of the page, just below the main search box.  When using the “Advance Search” field, there are options to limit your search results to keywords, document types, and by agency or docket.  A keyword search is search based on a general topic and common words used in the rule or topic. The document type option allows the user to limit the search result document to public submission, notice, rule, proposed rule and/or other supporting and related material.

Let’s now run a keyword search by typing “housing condition” in the text box.  Scroll down to middle of the page and in the “By Agency” box, type “Federal Prisons Bureau.” This section encompasses an auto-fill feature that allows the user to limit the agencies results as the text is being typed. Then click, search.  When searching by agency filed, we can search particular agencies to locate documents in a particular area of law.

After the page redirects, you will see a list of two proposed rules, one enacted rule, and three public submissions.  The page is displayed by title, document type, agency,  document identification, and posted date. Using the option field located at top left of page, you can sort your results by display topic, filter the result by other agencies, by category, or by comment status.

By clicking on an enacted rule, you can review the comments, the summary of rules, and the contents of the new rules.  By clicking on the Proposal Rule, you can review the notice of proposal changes, the deadline, the procedure for submitting comments, and the summary of proposal changes. The Public Submission is a detailed list of comments submitted by the community.

After reviewing the regulation of interest, you can provide comments to a document that is open for comments. To do so, click the “Submit a Comment” link either on the Search Results page or Document Details page.

After click the “Submit a Comment” link, a web form will open and allow you to enter your contact information and submit a comment.  The comment will be sent directly to the particular agency.

After submitting your comment, a comment tracking number will be issued.  This number can be used to quickly search for and locate your comment once it has been posted to Regulations.gov. This number is also permanently tied to your comment.  (Note: Since the Federal Prison Bureau comments for housing condition have closed, the section above is an illustration on how to submit a comment.)  

~Brian Tyson, L’12~

ALR Student’s Corner: LegalTrac

LegalTrac is a resource which can be used to find legal publications.  It provides indexing for more than 1,400 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals, along with law-related articles from over 1,000 additional business and general interest titles.  All articles contained in LegalTrac have been published between 1980 and 2012.  Currently 1,635,213 articles can be found in LegalTrac as of April 1, 2012.

LegalTrac may be accessed through the Charlotte School of Law homepage by clicking on “Law Library”–>”Electronic Resources”–>”A-Z Index of Databases” tab, then locate “LegalTrac” under “L”.

To locate articles within LegalTrac you may begin with a basic search.  This basic search allows you the choice of searching either by keyword, subject, publication title, or entire document.  As you enter one or more words into the input box to begin a search, a “search assist” feature will make suggestions based on the text you type.  You may further limit your search by checking one or more of the boxes below the input box.  And it is that simple!  Just click the search icon and the system will display your results, with the documents organized by type of content.  You may further refine your results in the left-hand sidebar.

You may also choose to search for a publication by clicking on the “Publication Search” tab.

This screen allows you to search for a specific publication.  You may either click on “List All Publications” above the search box which yields a list of all 2,757 publications in LegalTrac’s database, or you can type a search term to locate a relevant publication.  For example, if you wished to find a publication on criminal law you would begin by typing “criminal law” into the search box.  As you type this term search assist will begin populating relevant publications in a dropdown form as illustrated:

You may either select a publication which populates or finish typing your term then click on the search icon to receive a list of relevant publications.  You may further refine your results to publications with full text and/or to peer-reviewed publications.  It is important to know, as well, that not all articles are available in full text, but rather some articles found in LegalTrac are only available as citations or abstracts.

LegalTrac can be a valuable resource in a search for legal articles and publications.  You will find the site is very user-friendly unlike some other electronic research resources.

~Emily Little, L’12~