Solution Manual for Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW Chapter 2 introduces students to the beginning steps of legal research— analyzing the facts and issues to be researched. The identification of relevant facts is an essential step in both reading the law and researching the law. Understanding the facts is the first step toward analysis of the legal problem. Until the facts are known and understood, no research should begin. Facts may be categorized as relevant, explanatory, or legally unimportant CHAPTER OBJECTIVES Students should master the following objectives in this chapter: ● State and describe the three basic factual categories. ● Explain how to compare case law facts with a client’s factual situation. ● Describe how to identify legal issues in a client’s factual situation. ● Describe how to identify legal issues in a reported case law decision. ● Provide examples of good issue statements. LECTURE OUTLINE 2-1 Introduction Teaching Notes ● Stress the need to understand the important facts in a client’s case 2-2 Understand and Analyze the Facts Teaching Notes ● Provide examples of: ○ relevant facts ■ change or remove this fact and the case is significantly different ○ explanatory facts ■ provides details or in-depth understanding of the situation ○ legally unimportant facts ■ provide no details into the situation 2-3 Sort the Facts of a Client’s Case 2-4 Compare Case Law Facts with Your Client’s Facts Teaching Notes ● Discuss the importance of separating relevant facts from legally unimportant facts ● Demonstrate this through the Sorting the Facts box. Have students read the fact situation then have them separate 2-5 Legal Issues 2-6 Identify the Legal Issues Issues in Your Client’s Case Teaching Notes ● Stress the need to separate facts from legal issues when representing a plaintiff ● A defendants might be informed of legal issues when s/he is served with a complaint Issues in a Reported Case ● Cases typically involve more than one issue ● 2-7 Writing Issue Statements Teaching Notes ● Direct students to The Writer’s Corner ● Issues include legal questions and key facts 2-8 Sample Case File ● Review the components of the case file SUGGESTED ANSWERS QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why is the client’s factual situation so important? No legal research is productive until the researcher acquires a good picture of the client’s facts. 2. State and describe the three basic fact categories. Relevant Facts are absolutely essential. Explanatory Facts clarify the relevant facts. Legally Unimportant Facts play no role in the legal situation; they should be placed aside during legal research. 3. Explain the process for factual comparison. Factual comparison takes place after the researcher clarifies the client facts and locates case law that may be applicable to the client’s legal situation. The effective legal researcher works to locate case law that is as factually similar to the client facts as possible. This process involves looking for factual similarities, unknowns, and differences. 4. What is a legal issue? Legal issues are the specific legal questions raised by the facts. 5. How do you identify the issues in a case in which pleadings have been filed? If pleadings have been filed in a case, go to the pleadings and read about the causes of action involved to help establish the issues. Issues are found in causes of action or affirmative defenses in pleadings. 6. How do you identify the issues in a case in which no pleadings have been filed? Legal research helps to identify legal issues. When in doubt, always ask your supervisor for initial guidance. 7. How do you identify issues in a reported case? Issues usually follow the judicial history in a reported case. Courts usually provide a clear indication of the issue—for example “the question before this court is ….” 8. What does a good issue statement contain? A good issue statement contains the relevant facts and the specific legal question. CAN YOU FIGURE IT OUT? 1. Using the Kyllo v. United States case (located in this Chapter), can you find the code section the petitioner was originally indicted under? . 21 U.S.C § 841(a)(1) (Manufacturing marijuana) Test Yourself Answers appear in an appendix in the back of the text Test Yourself—Write it Right Suggested answers appear in an appendix in the back of the text. However, student answers will vary. Students can be asked to share some of their answers Citation Exercises 1. Using “State Case Law” in Appendix C write the correct abbreviation for the following regional reporters— be careful to get the spacing right. a. South Western Reporter – S.W. b. Atlantic Reporter – A. c. Southern Reporter – So. 2. Case names are underlined or italicized but never both. 3. Most legal sources follow the general format of: [check second point to remember in Appendix C] Title, Volume, Book or Reporter (abbreviated) Page, Year. From the Writer’s Corner 1. Issues have two elements—name them. ● Legal questions and key facts are part of the issue 2. Explain what is missing from the following issue: “The question is weather the defendant was negligent.” ● spelling error in the word “whether” ● missing key facts ASSIGNMENTS AND EXERCISES Analysis and Writing Exercises 1. Create a chart of relevant, explanatory, and legally unimportant facts for the Kyllo v. United States case. Student charts will vary. 2. State the issue in the Kyllo v. United States case. Remember to include the legal question and the key facts. Whether the use of a thermal imaging device aimed at a private home from a public street to detect relative amounts of heat within the home constitutes a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. 3. Read the documents in the Meyer’s case file found in Appendix A. Summarize the relevant and explanatory facts regarding the legality of the search and seizure of the bloody rag. Student responses will vary. 4. Consider the following hypothetical case: Ms. Grace Sanchez, your client, was recently dismissed from her position as a Day Manager of Helman’s, a large local department store. Ms. Sanchez is sixty-four-years old. She was with the company for over thirty years. She began her career at Helman’s as a clerk in the jewelry department. Ms. Sanchez believes Helman’s dismissed her because she is approaching retirement age and they do not want to pay her a pension. Also read the case of Chancellier v. Federated Department Stores, 672 F.2d 1312 (9th cir. 1981) found in Appendix F. a. Create a chart of the relevant, explanatory, and legally unimportant facts for the Sanchez fact pattern. Student charts will vary. b. What is the legal issue in the Sanchez case? Was Ms. Sanchez wrongfully terminated when her employer dismissed her because she is approaching retirement age and it does not want to pay her a pension? c. What was the legal issue in the Cancellier case? Did the lower court err when it denied the employee’s motions for reinstatement and for an injunction? Did the lower court err (1) in the use of certain jury instructions, (2) in the use of a general verdict, and (3) when it awarded compensatory and punitive damages to the employees? Online Research Exercises 5. Review the facts and issues in the case of Rimma v. Emerson found earlier in the chapter. Using the search features on both Google and Yahoo, look for information about applicable law. From your search results, select two Web sites and summarize the information you find. For each Web site, identify who prepared the site and the date of the latest revision of the site. Student responses will vary. 6. Repeat the assignment in Question 5 for the Sanchez case, described above. Student responses will vary. 7. Repeat the assignment in Question 5 for the Meyers’s case (the search and seizure issue). Student responses will vary. .) CASE PROJECT In-Class Small Group Work Review the hypothetical case you selected in Chapter 1. Try to identify the relevant facts, explanatory facts, and legally unimportant facts. Also try to identify the legal issues. Remember that this may change after you have researched the case. Student responses will vary.