Legal Research & Writing 2 : Week of 22 January 2008

January 22, 2008

• Prepare part B of research sheet for next class.
• There are a few cases we should all have in common; we can find others too, though.
• So. First a research memo, then a trial-level brief. On research memo, we're all working for plaintiff-- we'll split up for the trial-level brief.
• Trial-level brief is addressed to the court, most likely a summary judgment motion.
• Oral argument will be based on trial-level brief.
• Remember synthesis: deduce the rule of law from cases, then apply it to our facts.
• Contributory negligence will ultimately not be that relevant (reasons to be revealed later).
• Invite to stay is important; the fact they didn't provide booze is a big deal (ironically, it's bad for the defendants, who might otherwise be immune by statute: social host immunity). Does the invite encourage drinking? Does putting the beer in the homeowners' fridge have bearing on whether they "provided" the beer?
• Driver could have walked, etc.
• At the summary judgment level, we can ignore questions that need a trial/jury. So we can table all of those for now. Like how drunk the plaintiff was.
• Read file and part B of research worksheet for Thursday.
• Part C is due Tuesday.

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• Sara Deutch is our TA. Robert Ellis is filling in.
• Northwestern reporter: a regional reporter, including WI.
• Table T6 products = prod, corporation = corp
  • Full cite: Flambeau Prods. Corp. v. Honeywell Info. Sys., Inc, 341 N.W.2d 655 (Wis. 1984).
  • With a pin cite: Flambeau Prods. Corp. v. Honeywell Info. Sys., Inc, 341 N.W.2d 655, 664 (Wis. 1984).
  • Short cite: Flambeau, 341 N.W.2d at 664.
  • Directly after: Id. at 665
  • And again: Id.
• Note headnote numbers throughout the text. Never cite to them: they are just there to make your skimming more efficient.
• The Wisconsin Reports are just WI things; you'd pretty much always cite to the regional reporter, though.
• Note that the starred numbers in the online resources represent the pages in parallel citations. Lexis is a little more explicit about this than Westlaw.
• For this semester, outside of public domain, we will just use regional reporters.
• Citing to a footnote, you can do thusly:
  • Short cite: Flambeau, 341 N.W.2d at 664, n.13.
• Public domain citation:
  • First cite: Putnam v. Timer Warner Cable of Se. Wis., L.P. 2002 WI 108, 649 N.W. 2d 626.
  • Short cite, with pinpoint: Putnam, 649 N.W.2d 626, ¶ 16.
  • If case name was mentioned in sentence: 649 N.W.2d 626, ¶ 16.
  • Directly after: Id. ¶ 18.
  • Footnote (department standard-- this is not in the bluebook: Id. ¶ 18 n.10.
• Statutes. If it is feasible, cite to the statute itself, not the annotated statute. For WI, this is easy. For some other states, you might need to cite an annotated statute.
  • Official statute: Wis. Stat. § 401.207 (2005-06)
  • Make sure you look at the actual statute: online database dates are misleading!
  • Annotated statute: Wis. Stat. Ann. § 401.207 (West 2003).
• Judges and attorneys get very picky about this stuff. Many people will review your work, to exacting detail. If a citation is wrong, that makes it seem like you are missing details.