Starting in Legal Research: How to Read a Legal Reference

A legal reference is the source of a legal quote and the origin of law cited. It can identify sources of the law including federal, state, and local statutory law (laws written by legislatures). Common law which is made from a high court such as the U.S. Supreme Court to any state's high court, references to administrative law and other sources accepted by the courts as recognized as being law.

In our EXAMPLE below we look at citations that refer to what the law by the way of the courts, define what is violence. The citation in quotes is followed by the reference or citation number also referred to as a "cite"

A court decision contains the facts,issues, and ruling are recorded in a form of a diary using a popular system by West Publishing. Citations will use the names of the parties in the case law at the beginning of the citation when it comes to common law interpretation of statutory law. It includes numbers referring to volume and name of the reporter and page of the location of the legal quote or citation and the year the ruling was made.

The Black's Law, American College, and Random House dictionaries along with the courts define VIOLENCE as:

" unjust (illegal)or unwarranted exercise of force or power, usually with accompaniment of vehemence, outrage, or fury."
See: People v. McIlvain, 55 Cal. App. 2nd 322 (1994), 130 P. 2nd 131, 134.

In this example the parties involved are the People (the state) versus McIlvain. The report is found in volume 55 of the California Appellate courts reporter on page 322 and the courts decision was made in 1994. There is a secondary cite of the exact same case in a regional court reporter P. (Pacific Reporter) volume 130 2nd edition on page 134 of the exact same case. Why is it in two different sets of reporters? Well lawyers may not have every set of these books. The regional reporters have a collection of law for many states. You may see S.W., Atl., N.E., and so on. A good source for learning how to research law in all these reported is a very inexpensive book called "The Blue Book" subtitled "A Uniform System of Citation" by the Harvard Law Review Association, Gannett House, 1511 Massachusetts Avenue, cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 or you can order it from your local book store.

See if you can locate the source of these citations in your local library or court house library. The courthouse library is YOUR library. You paid for the courthouse library, you paid for it's books, paying the librarian salary and paying them to help you find the law. Remind them of that when you need to research the law. Get their names if you don't and complain in writing to the courthouse and court administrator. you have the right to access these books. They may try to ignore you but do not let them do it!

Find these cites:

"....force that is employed against the common right, against the laws, and against public liberty."
See: Anderson-Berney Bldg. Co. v. Lowry, Tex. Civ. App. 143 S.W. 2d 401,403 (1992).

"Violence in the workplace is not limited to physical contact or injury, but may include... false statements, publicity, and veiled threats, by words and acts."
See: Esco Operating Corporation v. Kaplan, 144 Misc. 646, 258 N.Y.S. 303 (1987).

For an excellent site to start Free on-line legal research on the Internet go to:

Researching the Law. You can also download FREE copies of the Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure.

The Book for Victims of Work Place Violence