6/29/2014

1
Legal Research
Definition
Research is the careful, systematic,
patient study and investigation I some
field of knowledge undertake to
discover or establish facts.
6/29/2014
2
Research Process
1. Problem Statement
2. Hypothesis
3. Definition of terms
4. Literature Review (RRL/S)
5. Respondents/Sample
6. Research Tools
7. Data Gathering Procedure
8. Time Schedule
9. Data Analysis
Components of Case
Brief/Digest
1. Fact
2. Legal Issues
3. Holding
4. Reasoning
5. Policy
6/29/2014
3
Facts
1. Parties
2. Procedural History
a. State lower courts decision
b. Grounds for that decision
c. The party who appealed
3. Events between the parties that led to
the litigation
a. Narrative Facts
b. Legal Facts


Example
Plaintiff, AZ, sued the city for the death of his six and
eight year old sons, who drowned in a pond on city
owned land. The trial court granted summary judgment
for the city and plaintiff appealed. The pond is
described as ordinary, shallow at the edges, gently
sloping, and murky. Is it about 300 yards from a housing
development. The pond is accessible by dirt road and is
usually used by the community for fishing and
swimming. The plaintiff has taken his sons there to fish
4 or 5 times and warned them not to go alone. The
plaintiffs sons were the first drowning in the pond.

The court affirmed the trial court summary judgment
for the city.

6/29/2014
4
Legal Issue/s
It is the question that the court must
decide to resolve the dispute between the
parties in the case before it.

How to find legal issue/s
1. Identify the law that governs the
dispute;
2. Ask yourself how the law should
apply to those facts;
3. Write this as a question that
combines the law with the material
facts of the case.


6/29/2014
5
Examples
Is an ordinary pond located near residential
property an attractive nuisance so that the
property owner is liable for the drowning
deaths of the trespassing children?

(W/N an ordinary pond located near
residential property is an attractive nuisance
so that the property owner is liable for the
drowning deaths of the trespassing children)

Holdings
It is the courts decision on the question
that was before it.

It provides the answer to the question
asked in the legal issue.
6/29/2014
6
Example
The pond is not an attractive nuisance
because it is not dangerous in itself.

Reasoning
The courts reasoning explains and
supports the courts decision
6/29/2014
7
Example
The law states that the landowner owes no
duty to trespasser except not to willfully
cause injury. There is an exception in favor
of a child trespassers for injury from an
attractive nuisance. If the landowner
maintains an attractive nuisance on its
land, it is liable for injuries caused by that
condition.
The court imposes 5 requirements:
1. The condition must be dangerous in itself;
2. The condition must be attractive an
enticing to children;
3. The children must be incapable of
understanding the danger involved;
4. The condition must have been left
unguarded;
5. It must be reasonably feasible to either
prevent access or to render the condition
innocuous, without destroying its utility.


6/29/2014
8
Policy
Underlying legal decisions that are the
social policies or goals that the court
wishes to further.

(How/What will society benefit from the
law used to answer the legal issue?)
Example
The purpose of the attractive nuisance
doctrine is to protect the welfare and safety of
children, who are unprotected under the
general rule governing a landowners liability
to trespassers. However, the condition on the
landowners premises must be a dangerous
one likely to cause injury. Ponds and other
bodies of water are so common and widely
used without injury that they are not
dangerous.