JURI4072 Class 9

Unit 4 |

Primary Law

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Week 9 - Statutes & Legislative Tools

Annotations & Search Methods

Statutes Basics

Cycle of A Statute

Note on Legislative History

The Legislative Process

Reminder of Research Process

Our Hierarchy

Publications

Class Menu

Validation

Statutes Practice

Class 9 Objectives

• Distinguish session laws from codes
• Search efficiently for relevant statutes, session laws, multi-state surveys, and court rules using various strategies such as search queries, popular name tables, and secondary sources
• Validate statutes using citators, while recognizing hallucinated citations from GenAI sources

The Research Process: Steps 2 & 3

Statutes & Treaties

Constitution

Regulations

Secondary Sources

Restatements

Case Law

Most Authoritative Least Authoritative

Where are we in our hierarchy?

• Cover most areas of law
• Interpreting statutes is one of the main roles of the courts
• Control other forms of primary law (cases, regulations)
• Can pass a statute to overturn or modify court decisions

Why are statutes important?

How a statuteis made

Can sometimes be used as persuasive authority for statutory interpretation- Committee Reports generally more useful *Use is contested, and not always accepted in court

Legislative history = any documents, drafts, and records produced during the legislative process

** A Note on Legislative History

Stages of a Statute

Full, final version of law, published in Statutes at Large

Session Law

The final version, sorted into various topical sections of the U.S. Code.

Codified Statute

First appearance of final law, usually published in single pamphlet

Slip Law

Statutory Publications

*Codification = When laws statutes are divided up into various titles of a Code

- Publication of compiled statutes adopted and enacted by a legislature - Will also include Ct. rules & constitutions *Note that annotated codes are usually unofficial – GA is an exception

Legislative Codes

Credits Section & History

Finding Aids

Context/Analysis

Citing Refs

Using an Annotated Code

Locating a Statute

Locating a Statute

Validating Statutes

• For statutes, signals are slightly different
• Denotes how statutes are discussed in later cases or legislation

KeyCite vs. Shepard's Signals

When validating a statute you must:------------------------------------------------

1. Look at the citator signal to see status of law
2. Review citator report to see if cases or subsequent legislation affects law
3. Look at bottom of statute in a code for its "credits" (see if any amendments)
4. See how current the law is – can change quickly

Updating a Statute

Statute PracticePart 1

Dr. Lobert Riston is a prominent trauma surgeon at a renowned hospital in Georgia. As a courtesy to his medical school, he teaches the 4th year med students who are doing their surgery rotation. One day, a patient is brought in for emergeny surgery due to a freak accident where an A/C unit fell out of a window and landed on the patient, crushing their arm. As the med students watch on from the next room, Dr. Riston begins to amputate the patient's arm, which he determines is beyond saving. What the students do not know, is that Dr. Riston has a lunch appointment with a reporter from a national news outlet for an interview about his storied career and skill. Concerned that he will be late for his glorious moment in the spotlight, he decides to demonstrate to the students why his nickname is, "the Fastest Scalpel in the South." The students are floored and break out in applause, except for one who faints, while Dr. Riston hurries off to his lunch meeting.

Dr. Lobert Riston is a prominent trauma surgeon at a renowned hospital in Georgia. As a courtesy to his medical school, he teaches the 4th year med students who are doing their surgery rotation. One day, a patient is brought in for emergeny surgery due to a freak accident where an A/C unit fell out of a window and landed on the patient, crushing their arm. As the med students watch on from the next room, Dr. Riston begins to amputate the patient's arm, which he determines is beyond saving. What the students do not know, is that Dr. Riston has a lunch appointment with a reporter from a national news outlet for an interview about his storied career and skill. Concerned that he will be late for his glorious moment in the spotlight, he decides to demonstrate to the students why his nickname is, "the Fastest Scalpel in the South." The students are floored and break out in applause, except for one who faints, while Dr. Riston hurries off to his lunch meeting.

Statute Practice Problem

Unfortunately, less than a month later Dr. Liston see a Daily Mail headline that reads, "Famed Surgeon dubbed 'Fasted Scalpel in the South' Finished Surgery with a 300% mortatlity rate." Soon after, he receives notice that he is being sued by several estates for medical malpractice under a Ga. law for the death of the patient after the surgery (caused by blood loss from shoddy suturing), the death of one of the O.R. residents assisting with the surgery (due to infection from Dr. Riston throwing around his scalpel) and the accidental death of one of the medical students who fainted from shock during the surgery (hitting their head and succumbing to a brain bleed). We are defending Dr. Riston, so our work is cut out for us. We need to research this statute, it's requirements, any possible defenses, and validate/update the statute.

Unfortunately, less than a month later Dr. Liston see a Daily Mail headline that reads, "Famed Surgeon dubbed 'Fasted Scalpel in the South' Finished Surgery with a 300% mortatlity rate." Soon after, he receives notice that he is being sued by several estates for medical malpractice under a Ga. law for the death of the patient after the surgery (caused by blood loss from shoddy suturing), the death of one of the O.R. residents assisting with the surgery (due to infection from Dr. Riston throwing around his scalpel) and the accidental death of one of the medical students who fainted from shock during the surgery (hitting their head and succumbing to a brain bleed). We are defending Dr. Riston, so our work is cut out for us. We need to research this statute, it's requirements, any possible defenses, and validate/update the statute.

Medical Malpractice Statute

1. What is a relevant statute that you found and why?
2. How did you find this law? (i.e. finding aid, secondary source, field search, other primary law, 50 state survey?)
3. What is the citation?
4. Are there any relevant cases you can use from the annotations?
5. Which annotation tool did you use?
6. Is the statute valid? Is it current?

Medical Malpractice Statute Questions

End of Materials

* Appear similar to version in statutes at large, except they are separate from other published laws * Includes legislative history info

These are published individually, before the session law.

Where are Slip Laws?

Georgia Law Example

This example is from a Florida Statute

Context & Analysis on Westlaw provides curated citations to secondary sources that provide more info on a statute *Lexis puts this in the bottom as a research reference

Bloomberg Law

Westlaw

Lexis

• Can select jurisdictions
• Some (Westlaw, BLaw) let you tailor survey
• Topics are limited
• Some included in secondary sources
• Some are also available compiled by interest groups or legal orgs

1776 (Columbia Pictures 1972)

PL Tables w/ Revised Numbering

Topic Index

Alphabetical listing of common names for laws

Statutes at Large citation

Shows bill or res #Also tells you where to find sec. in code

601st law passed that session

101st Congress

P.L. 101-601

• This is the full law before division
• Each law has Public Law number
• P.L.
• Appear in Statutes at Large

Session Laws