Case Research Extra Credit Assignment: General Instructions For your extra credit assignment, you will be using WestlawNext, an online legal research tool available through the library, to find a court opinion. You will then prepare a case brief (one page or less) on the case you have chosen. More detailed instructions are below. POINTS: This extra credit assignment is worth up to 10 points on your final exam. DUE DATE: Case briefs must be turned in no later than the last day of class. Assignment Details 1. Choose a case from one of the assigned readings in the textbook. 2. With each case you will find what’s called a case citation. For instance, for a case called Orlando v. Cole, the citation is 67 Mass. App. Ct. 1112, 921 N.E.2d 566 (2010). The opinions of all of the federal and state courts of appeals (both intermediate-level and supreme courts) are published in books called reporters. The case citation tells you how to find the case in the reporters and gives you information about the type of case it is. For Orlando v. Cole, the case citation tells you that the case has been published in two places: Massachusetts’ own statepublished reporter (“Mass. App. Ct.”) , and a regional reporter (the second edition of the North Eastern Reporter, shown by the “N.E.2d”). The first number in front of each reporter is the volume number. The second number listed is the page number. For more information on this, see Chapter 1 Section 6 in your textbook. 3. The published opinions that are available in reporters are also available online through a database called WestlawNext. Once you have selected a case and found the citation, your next step will be to find your case on WestlawNext. Instructions for using WestlawNext are below. Instructions for Using WestlawNext for Case Research 1. Go to the Troy Libraries website, http://trojan.troy.edu/library/ 2. In the middle of the page under the heading “Find,” click the “Databases” link 3. The databases are listed alphabetically. Click on the “W” to show all databases beginning with the letter “w.” 4. Click on the link for WestlawNext. It should open in a new tab. 5. Once in Westlaw, you will see a space where you can type in search terms. (It is next to a large orange button that says SEARCH.) Type in one of the case citations (for example, in Orlando v. Cole, you would only need to type in 921 ne2d 566). Click the Search button. Your case should come up immediately. Note: if it does not, you may want to just choose another case that does. I have found that occasionally the textbook lists case citations inaccurately. It is still possible to find the case without a citation, but it’s more difficult. You’re probably better off just choosing a case that is easy to find. 6. Directly under the search bar next to where it says WestlawNext, you will see the case name and information about the case. Below that there is a set of tabs. It is automatically set to the tab called “Document.” On that tab, look over to the right of your screen. There will be a set of buttons starting with one called “Go to.” You can use the second button from the left to print the case or email it to yourself to print later on (select from the drop down menu). Briefing Cases Your textbook has information about what a case brief is and how to create one. Briefly (pun intended), law students and legal researchers use case briefs to outline and summarize the main points of cases they read. This helps them distill the most important points of law from the case. Case briefing is a useful practice that will help you uncover why a court made the decision that it did. I have added a folder in Blackboard with links to some websites with additional information about case briefing. You are free to choose whichever format you are more comfortable with.
Purchase answer to see full attachment