ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH SKILLS

This is an ungraded, anonymous assessment, and is intended to gauge your present level of legal research skill. Please do not consult any sources of information or other persons in filling it out. Thank you.

1. List six different sources (three printed and three electronic) in which you can find U.S. statutes.

2. Give two different sources for updating case law. These can be print or electronic, but indicate which they are in your answer.

3. Using either print or electronic sources (no library staff!) how could you find out what books this library has on sports law?

4. Your client Suzy Doozy is having trouble with a new Ford she bought three weeks ago from a local auto dealership. It makes strange noises when she brakes. The mechanic at the dealership has told her "they all do that." She is scared to drive the car because she normally transports her six year old son and his friends to soccer practice and school in it, and she wants to exchange the car for another model, or get her money back. How would you begin your research to find out 1) what law, state or federal, governs the sale and 2) whether she can get any satisfaction from the dealership? (Note: there are many ways to start this research, and many are equally correct, but some are more efficient than others!)

5. How can you find recent law review articles on the "glass ceiling" in U. S. law firms? List two different sources, indicating whether they are printed or electronic.

6. Indicate how you would find a standard form for filing a writ of habeas corpus. (You do not have to indicate the source; tell me how, as precisely as you can, you would find the source).

7. How could you find Louisiana case law on the tort of "veggie libel"? How would you find Texas case law on the same subject?

For legal research mavens:

8. How would you find the text of a treaty to which the U.S. is a party that was ratified before 1940? Give two printed sources.

9. How could you tell whether any cases had ever been brought citing a particular treaty? Give three sources, at least one of which is print.

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