Introduction

As a graduating senior at the University of Arkansas at Monticello located in the southeastern corner of the state in Drew County, I researched how to find legal information concerning criminal cases within our local area. I discovered that the Drew County Courthouse maintains local legal records in its law library. The facilities can be used with permission granted by the circuit clerk. The current telephone number to contact for information concerning the use of these facilities for educational purposes is 870-367-6250 weekdays from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The Drew County Courthouse is located one block south of the Monticello Square at 210 South Main. The dual Monticello Branch and Southeast Regional Library is located another block south and to the left of the Drew County Courthouse in the sharp curve. Several books of interest to criminal justice majors and minors can be found in the front of the library just inside the front entrance. To contact the librarian on staff for more information, call 870-367-8583 or 870-367-8584 during regular business hours. The library is open from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM weekdays and until 12:00 PM on Saturday.

In addition, the University of Arkansas at Monticello library is an ample local place to find legal information about Supreme Court cases and other major court decisions. The librarians who work there are normally very eager to aid criminal justice majors and minors with helpful directions to find information about criminal cases. The information desk, stationed in the rear of the first floor, offers students guided tours of the legal research area located on the same floor at the front right side of the library. Access to these services of the university lasts from 7:30 AM until 10:00 PM Monday through Thursday. The library closes earlier on Friday afternoons at 4:00 PM. Information about materials available in the library can be accessed on-line at their web site: http://www.uamont.edu/library/.

In addition, the site offers access to on-line databases such as LEXIS-NEXIS Academic. Any of the librarians on staff can give students information concerning correct access to this very useful database either at the library or by contacting them at 870-460-1080. LEXIS-NEXIS Academic features searches for case titles and case numbers. This service is currently offered with no cost to the student despite its well-known commercial subscription fee. When students need to check out books from the library, they must have on their person their student identification card. When students need to re-check the book(s), they can access the online library web site and recheck the book(s) by entering their student identification number followed immediately without a space with the number of student identification cards that the university has issued to them since their first year. The students must return the book(s) before the end of the semester to receive their grades, graduate, or have their transcripts released. The University of Arkansas at Monticello library offers seven printed references in its legal research area during regular library hours.

Background Information

Before pursuing any type of legal research materials, students must understand the basic fundamentals necessary for doing such an activity. The literature of the law includes statutes, court decisions, encyclopedias, digests of case law, and other books of search or index. Statutes and court decisions at the state and federal levels are primary sources and are what students should research first. If these sources cannot be found, then students need to direct their search towards books of search. If further information is needed, then books of index are used. A dictionary can be classified as either a book of search or a book of index depending on the manner to which it is used by students while researching the subject (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.3-9).

Books of Search

Books of search are secondary persuasive authorities because they explain or describe the law, but are not the law itself (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.3-9). Legal encyclopedias are narratives about certain subjects of the law with footnotes directing students to cases that deal with the topic. The three major classifications of encyclopedias are based on the information that can be presented in the narratives, which are general law, special subjects, and local/state law (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.290-1). The remaining two categories that books of search can be grouped are annotated or loose-leaf reporters. The former is an encyclopedic essay that contains five key features. The characteristics notable to an annotation include definitions, commentaries, statements and reasons for general rules concerning the topic, list of cases that relate to the subject, and a summary of the decisions made in each of those cases. Loose-leaf services are published to keep students up-to-date with the latest cases and decisions available, thus they are printed in a pamphlet style format that allows students to easily remove and add cases to their collection (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.97). Loose-leaf services vary in their content, but on average they contain five similar characteristics. These include statutes and information about the law such as legislative history and judicial decisions, editorial comments and explanatory notes, subject indexes, tables of cases and statutes, and indexes to current material available that summarizes the recent developments that have been made pertaining to the subject (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.238-9).

Books of Index

Books of Index are not considered persuasive authority, but are still secondary sources of the law because they contain information about facts pertaining to statutes and court decisions. Form-books, digests of case law, and of course indexes are three types of books of index (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.3-9). From-Books are classified into three major groups. These are general, subject, and other. They are all used to aid attorneys in drafting forms and include references to cases related to the topic of the form (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.374-376).

Digests of case law cover various realms of the criminal justice system. West Publishing Company is the leading publisher of digests that incorporates narratives of federal and state judicial decisions into several digests. These include the U.S. Supreme Court Digest, Federal Digest, West’s Federal Practice Digest Second Edition, and Modern Practice Digest. Regional and state digests are also available. All of these digests report court decisions by listing cases as designated by the rules of the American Digest System. This system establishes the following guidelines. First, the law is divided into seven classifications that are then divided into sub-classes that devolve into a topic which is categorized into subdivisions and are given a Key Number that identifies the case. In addition, each judicial opinion has headnotes that designate the topic of the decision because at the time near publication, the majority opinion is the only information that the editor knows (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.65-95).

Methods of Research

In order to research properly and efficiently, students should be aware of the four methods of legal research which are divided into the following categories: case, topic/analytic, index, and definition. The case methods approach to legal research requires the knowledge of the exact title and number of a case in order to locate information on that specific case only. Using topic/analytic methods, students search for information about the topic of various cases rather than the cases themselves. The index method searches for the same subject matter as the topic/analytic method, but through the headings in a book of indexes rather than through the table of contents of one or two specific books. The fourth manner of search is the definition method, which is applied when students are searching for a solution that relies solely or to a great extent on the legal definition of a certain word or phrase that has been defined by a judicial decision.

West Publishing Company

West Publishing Company is the most enormous law book publisher in the United States. It is located in St. Paul, Minnesota, and publishes a vast array of court reports, statutes, and secondary sources. Its most noted publication is the National Reporter System. In addition, West Publishing Company is also responsible for WESTLAW.

The National Reporter System has been published by the West Publishing Company since its first publication in 1879 with the introduction of the North Western Reporter. The system has expanded into seven regional reporters. Each of these books reports case information about all the states that are grouped in the geographical location that it encompasses. In addition, four federal reporters detail cases that have been decided in the various federal districts throughout the United States including the opinions made by the United States Supreme Court. The first year that Arkansas recorded a case decided in the state by its highest appellate court was in 1837. The National Reported System recorded this event along with other opinions of state appellate and trial courts from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and the (Oklahoma) Indian Territory in its first publication of the Southwestern Reporter in 1866. The publication can be cited as “S.W. or S.W.#d.” where the numerical sign represents actual numbers of two and above as future editions are published (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p. 54-64).

WESTLAW can be accessed via the Internet to locate introductory narratives of the cases and majority opinions available in the National Reporter System. Boolean searches for information contained in the database make legal research easier and more thorough because students can use the headnotes, Key Numbers, and majority opinions found in WESTLAW to locate the complete manual version in the National Reporter System or find information that is yet to be published. WESTLAW updates the database on a daily basis so students can find up-to-date information on majority opinions before they are published in the National Reporter System. The best means of searching the database is by entering the case title, case citation number, or Key Numbers for the case. In addition, students can enter key or descriptive words, the name of one of the parties involved in the case, or a phrase in quotation marks to access a list of possible cases that include that information. Boolean searching by a particular state, circuit, or federal district court is also an available means of accessing a list of possible cases that contain the information being researched. Students can search for opinions that were given during a particular year as well (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.465-7).

Summary of the Books Available at the Local Libraries in Drew County

Whit Barton, a Drew County attorney, recommended several print resources that are currently available at the Drew County Law Library for use as legal research materials. These are the Arkansas Code Annotated, Arkansas Digest, Arkansas Reports, and American Jurisprudence Second Edition for primary sources. For a secondary source, Arkansas Model Jury, an on-line computer research capability that is only available in the Drew County Law Library, was recommended. The Arkansas Code Annotated includes statutes passed by the legislature and is organized by subject matter. The Arkansas Digest consists of narratives arranged by subject of the case laws that were decided in the Arkansas Court of Appeals. The Arkansas Reports gives complete judicial opinions. The American Jurisprudence Second Edition is a general law encyclopedia arranged in alphabetical order. All of the books and the on-line site are financed by county court costs in order to make the services available to members of the local court system and the public.

The local public library offers several books related to the law, of these choices are the Constitutional Amendments: 1789 to the Present and Black’s Law Dictionary with Pronunciations Fifth Edition. Kris E. Palmer wrote the former book. It was published in 2000 by Gale Group and is composed of 716 pages. The book includes a few pictures, an overview of the Bill of Rights, and covers all of the major points of every Amendment of the United States Constitution, which is included in the appendixes for reference. West Publishing Company publishes the latter publication, which is well known as the most extensive legal dictionary currently available. It includes a pronunciation chart in the front cover to clarify the pronunciation symbols used in the text. The definitions of the terms are defined as they apply to the common law, a system of law that considers the decisions of the court as precedents. In addition, a table of British Regal Years is included in the rear of the book.

Summary of the Books Available at the University of Arkansas at Monticello

Print resources currently available at the University of Arkansas at Monticello include the American Justice, Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice Professionals, Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, The Guide to American Law, and United States Reports. The first and last of this list of available publications can be effective sources of information when the case students are researching are not up-to-date. The American Justice consists of three volumes. Each contains information concerning various judicial and criminal justice related issues recorded before 1996. United States Reports can be used when students know the Supreme Court citation so that they can locate it in the table of cases that will direct them to further information about the case within the contents of the book. Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice Professionals supplies students with substantial information about Constitutional Amendment guarantees such as the right to due process. Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment includes 439 entries related to the field of criminal justice studies. The Guide to American Law, currently consisting in twelve volumes and seven supplements, applies the principles of the legal system to its corresponding court decision(s).

Shephard’s Citations

Before accepting that the information cited in any of the previously listed materials is authority, students must “shepardize” their results. The Shephard’s Citations indicates every case as it enters and exits each level of the state and federal court systems. In addition, the National Reporter System has its own Shephard’s Citations. If students find that a certain case has been appealed to a higher court of authority, then they know that the information that they have previously found cannot be authority on the subject that they are researching. On the other hand, if they find that the case has been decided by the United States Supreme Court and no other case since that date has been issued on the subject, they can be assured to a notable degree that the case that they have researched does have authority (Jacobstein and Mersky 1977 p.261-289).

Conclusion

In performing my own legal research for other criminal justice courses, I have learned that the information I found in writing this independent study paper is a very valuable source to students living off campus (and probably on campus, too). Once, you understand when the libraries are open and what information is available, it makes legal research faster if not fun. Finding legal research is like an Easter egg or treasure hunt. One believes that the task is impossible at first and that the prize may not exist, but once the goal is found, a smile curves across one’s face with the joy that the knowledge gained in performing the search will help oneself and others. As a criminal justice student, sharing information among each other is a key task in order to strengthen everyone’s understanding of the criminal justice system so that when each student enters the workforce, each in his own way will have a common basis in this special breed of knowledge. This in turn will promote more educated leaders in the future criminal justice workforce that can better serve the public of Drew and its surrounding counties and the United States.

References

Jacobstein, J., & Mersky, R. (1977). Fundamentals of Legal Research. Mineola, New

York: Foundation Press, Inc.

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