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Researching Virginia Law: Secondary Sources
SECONDARY SOURCES
Secondary sources are maps to the law. They help frame an issue for the researcher and point the way to relevant resources. Major secondary resources include legal encyclopedias, treatises, form books, law review articles, and the American Law Reports. Keep in mind that although secondary sources are very useful, they are not the law, and usually should not be cited. » Legal Encyclopedias » Treatises » Form Books » Law Review Articles » American Law Reports Legal Encyclopedias Legal encyclopedias are multi-volume sets that summarize the areas of law within a jurisdiction. Topics are organized alphabetically in articles, which are broken down into sections. Some articles are brief, others can almost fill an entire volume. Encyclopedia articles are a good starting point; they will usually state important points to consider and direct you to the relevant laws. Encyclopedias do not go into much depth, however, so you should use the article as a jumping-off point for more extensive research. Virginia Encyclopedia Michie's Jurisprudence of Virginia and West Virginia (Call # KFV2465 .M5 [Virginia Collection]) is the legal encyclopedia for Virginia. It has a two-volume paperback index at the end of the set and an outline at the beginning of each volume. Articles outline the issue, and footnotes point to specific cases, statutes, etc. Keep in mind that this work also discusses West Virginia law, so be sure that the section you read is covering the proper jurisdiction. National Encyclopedias If you cannot find the issue you are researching in Michie's, you can try one of the national encyclopedias. These discuss the law of all fifty states, as well as federal law, so they cover topics not found in a state encyclopedia, but the article you read may not discuss Virginia law. These work in much the same way as Michie's: legal topics organized alphabetically, with a paperback index at the end. There are two major national encyclopedias: • American Jurisprudence 2d (Am Jur 2d). Call # KF154 .A42 • Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.). Call # KF154 .C672 Treatises A treatise is a book written by a legal authority on a specific topic. These can go into much greater detail when outlining a topic, and the author will often analyze it as well. You can search for treatises at the Law Library by using LION, William and Mary's on-line catalog. From the Law Library's home page, select the link for LION and you will see the search screen. Select "LAW" from the library menu on the right, and click on the "Search Everything" button, not the "Subject" button, when you want to submit a search. This will give you a better chance of retrieving a more thorough list of useful books.
Form Books Form books do not usually discuss the law, but they are a good resource if you need a form for a particular situation. Remember that any forms found in these books are models, and should be modified to fit specific situations. Virginia Form Books Virginia Forms [Call # KFV2468 .G6 (Virginia Collection)] is the form book series for Virginia. Volume 5 contains an index. National Form Books There are several form book series in our Forms and Practice Room that have been designed for nationwide use. These books include more types of forms than Virginia Forms, but you will not find anything designed specifically for Virginia. • West's Legal Forms (Call # KF170 .W48) • Am Jur Forms 2d (Call # KF170 .A542) • Federal Procedural Forms Lawyers Edition (Call # KF8836 .F4) • American Jurisprudence Pleading and Practice Forms Annotated (Call # KF8836 .A45) • West's Federal Forms (Call # KF8836 .W4) Law Review Articles Law review articles are written by law students or legal professionals. Articles frequently discuss highly-debated topics, and authors will usually analyze the issue. Law review articles are also useful due to the large number of references to relevant laws, which help make them useful starting points for further research. You can search for law review articles using LegalTrac or the Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, two online periodical index databases. You can access either of these databases from the Law Library's home page under "Quick Database Links". You can also search for law review articles using the paper siblings of these online services, located in the Reference collection: • Current Law Index, the paper version of LegalTrac; and • Index to Legal Periodicals & Books. American Law Reports (A.L.R.) The ALR service (Call # KF132 .A40 through .A45) is valuable due to its annotations – articles written by legal professionals that explain a point of law. There are five primary ALR series (the only difference between series is age) plus a series for federal law. Authors of annotations will normally analyze an issue and survey the relevant law in various jurisdictions across the U.S. Articles aim for nationwide coverage, so you will not find articles specific to Virginia, but each annotation has a Table of Jurisdictions Represented that you can quickly check to see if it mentions Virginia law. Annotations usually have an index and an outline that you can use to search for particular situations. Searching for Annotations You can search for ALR annotations using three different resources, located at the end of the ALR collection: • ALR Quick Index is a two-volume paperback set that indexes the most important annotations from the ALR 3d, 4th, 5th and Federal series. • ALR Index is a six-volume hardbound set that indexes all annotations from the ALR 2d through 5th and Federal series. • ALR Digest is a sort-of outline to the topics ALR covers. The digest contains a large number of alphabetically-organized topics which contain more specific subtopics. By working your way through this outline, you can see what annotations cover a specific issue. You may also wish to examine the pamphlet "How to Use ALR 5th". Several copies are located next to the ALR index volumes, but please be sure to return the pamphlet when you are done. » Legislative History » Cases » Administrative Law » References
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