| A | B |
|---|
| adjudicate | To decide disputes between parties by applying the law to the facts of the dispute. |
| advance sheets | Soft cover booklets containing the most recent cases that are yet to be bound in books (reporters) |
| affirm | (1) what an appeals court does if it agrees with and confirms a lower court's decision (2) an act of declaring something to be true under the penalty of perjury by a person |
| annotations | Remarks, notes, case summaries, or commentaries following a statute or other authority that describe the interpretations of the statute or authority. |
| appeal | A proceeding brought to a higher court to review a lower court’s decision. |
| appellate court | A court hearing jurisdiction of appeal and review. |
| binding authority | Any source of law that a court must follow when deciding a case. See primary authority. |
| briefing a case | Summarizing a case. |
| case of first impression | A case presenting a legal issue that has not yet been addressed by a court in a particular jurisdiction. |
| case on point | A case involving factual circumstances and issues that are similar to those in the case being researched. |
| case on "all fours" | A case in which all four elements (the parties, the circumstances, the legal issues involved, and the remedies sought by the plaintiff) are very similar to those in the case being researched. |
| case law | Rules of law announced in court decisions. |
| citatory | A publication used to verify legal authorities and to locate additional, more recent cases. (Example: Shepardizing) |
| citation | A reference that indicates where a particular constitutional provision, statute, administrative rule, court rule, reported case or article can be found. |
| code | A systematic and topically organized presentation of laws, rules, or regulations. |
| codification | Process of collecting and arranging the laws (federal, county, or state) into a code. |
| common law | Law that has evolved from earlier decisions of courts; law based on precedent; case law. The legal system prevailing in English-speaking countries, originated in England, and its form of development was different from that of civil law or code law. |
| constitutional law | Law set forth in the Constitution of the United States and in state constitutions. |
| court rules | Regulations with the force of law governing practice and procedure in the various courts. Procedures and requirements adopted by all individual courts that must be followed when filing legal pleadings |
| decision | The opinion of the court. |
| dicta | A Latin term referring to nonbinding judicial statements that are not directly related to the facts or issues presented in the case and thus not essential to the hyolding. |
| digest | A detailed index by subject and topics on points of law covered by reported cases using West’s key number system. A compilation in which brief summaries of court cases are arranged by subject and subdivided by jurisdiction and court. |
| headnotes | Brief statements of fact and the rule or law applied to those facts that comes before the printed opinion in an unofficial reporter. A tool for helping legal researchers find the point of law they wish to research. |
| holding | The binding legal principle, or precedent, that is drawn from the court's decision in a case. |
| hornbook | A single-volue scholarly discussion, or treatise, on a particular legal subject. |
| jurisdiction | (1) The power of a court to hear and try a case. (2) The geographic area in which a court has power or the types of cases it has power to hear. |
| key number | A system of classification that divides law into more than 400 categories or topics. Cases published in West’s reporters are analyzed and categorized into topic(s) and given key numbers. |
| legal encyclopedias | Books that state principles of law supported by footnote references to pertinent cases throughout the United States. |
| loose-leaf service | Legal articles and information that brings together both secondary and primary materials in a specific area of law, such as immigration law, filed in loose leaf binders. Because the pages are in a binder, they can be easily updated on a frequent basis, e.g. weekly. |
