THE FINAL

Created Wednesday 26 April 2017

Note, there are 40 points total for this exam - corresponding exactly to the percentage reflected in your final grade. In all questions, choose the BEST answer.


True/False (10 pts)




  1. The primary purpose of Shepardizing a case is to determine what happened in other connected cases that were litigated after it.

  1. Judges prefer citations to headnotes instead of the actual case text, because they concisely explain the case and thus save time.

  1. While each administrative agency may have its own set of rules, in Florida, these administrative rules may be found in a centralized source.

  1. If a case has negative treatment as indicated by an updating service (red flag/sign), then that case may no longer be used as legal authority.

  1. Google Scholar does show you cases that have cited to the current case you're looking at, but does not provide information on positive or negative treatment.

  1. Even without the Internet, finding statutes by their popular name isn't particularly difficult because they may be found in a centralized "book" location.

  1. Civil or criminal, any time a case is appealed, the defendant becomes the appellant.

  1. Unlike Federal Statutes, citations to Florida Statutes do not commonly contain a Title number.

  1. Because the nature of crime is ever-changing, criminal statutes may be interpreted broadly by judges.

  1. The "parallel citation" system ensures that each case has one and only one possible citation.



Multiple Choice (10 pts)




  1. Which of the following is the STRONGEST authority with regards to the law?

  1. A majority opinion
  2. A dissenting opinion
  3. A concurring opinion
  4. An amicus brief opinion


  1. Of the following, practical legal research is most likely to end on a ____________

  1. case in a reporter; this is a form of actual law and not merely commentary
  2. legal encyclopedia article; judges prefer simplistic overviews to complex explanation
  3. legal self help book; if it's good enough for a layperson, it's good enough for an attorney
  4. law journal article; scholarly discussion is more important than real-life examples


  1. Which of the following could NOT be a part of a citation to a federal law?

  1. USC
  2. USCA
  3. USCH
  4. USCS


  1. All of the following tend to focus on one subject, but ____________ are usually the most authoritative, since states often adopt them as actual law.

  1. Uniform Laws
  2. Restatements
  3. Practice Manuals
  4. Treatises


  1. Which of the following is NOT a common or useful method of interpreting statutes?

  1. Consulting a legal dictionary to clarify unclear terms
  2. Avoiding references to other cases that have already interpreted the statute.
  3. Presuming that all words and punctuation have significant meaning.
  4. Interpreting ambiguities in such a way that the purpose of the legislation is furthered.


  1. Articles that appear in a school's main "Law Review" can be about

  1. Circuit splits, where two equal courts disagree on a topic
  2. Current developments in law
  3. Revisiting older scholarly topics that are not often encountered in modern law
  4. All of the above and more; unlike specialized journals, a school's main "Law Review" usually touches a variety of topics.


  1. All of the following might reasonably be referred to as "legal encyclopedias' EXCEPT

  1. Pacific Reporter
  2. Florida Jurisprudence
  3. Corpus Juris Secundum
  4. American Law Reports


  1. Who may be a LEAD writer on a law journal article?

  1. A former judge
  2. A law professor who has passed the bar
  3. A student without a J.D. degree
  4. Any of the above


  1. ________ are like legal "Mad-Libs;" providing fill-in-the-blank templates for legal documents.

  1. Horn books
  2. Tort books
  3. Form books
  4. Port books


  1. Of the following _______________ law tends to be the most diverse, subject matter-wise, because of the strong emphasis and weight of its corresponding law.

  1. Contract Law
  2. Constitutional Law
  3. Tort Law
  4. Criminal Law



This or that? (12 pts)



For the following questions, look at the heading for possible answers. Choose the best one.
(Note, if your answer is not one of the given possible answers, it will automatically be counted as incorrect!)


Civil Or Criminal?

  1. In a particular _________ case, the judge has instructed the jury to use a "reasonable doubt" level standard with regards to proof.

  1. Jim paid $1000 to Susan because he was found liable for the damage he caused, after a ______ trial.


Westlaw, Lexis, Both, or Neither?

  1. _________ owns the "Shepardizing" trademark.

  1. In _________, green OR blue indicates that your case is likely to still be good law.

  1. _________ own(s) and use(s) the famous "Key" system.


Statutory (Legislative) or Common (Judicial)?

  1. A law, passed last year, concerning the use of a currently nonexistent teleportation device is a _____________ law

  1. A defendant accused of committing a crime with an Amazon Echo is found guilty, creating a new legal precedent. New ______ law was just created.



Annotated or Unannotated?

  1. True story: Once, I picked up the entire set of ____________ Florida Statutes with only my hands and arms, and carried it across a room.

  1. ____________ statutes contain lots of citations to cases.


Chronological or Subject Matter?

  1. The case reporter Southern Second, or So.2d, is arranged in _________ order.

  1. Though it is not exact, it's more appropriate to say that a full collection of Florida Statutes is published in _________ order.

  1. Florida Jurisprudence Second Edition, or Fla Jur 2d, is arranged in _________ order.




Fill in the blank (4x2 pts each)



  1. Claudia Donavan sues the Regent Corporation in 2011. Everything in the case wraps up in 2012. You can find the case on page 124 in the Second Southern Reporter, Volume 520. Actually, you can't, because it's a fake case, but please write the citation for it anyway.

  1. Limiting the power of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement is covered under federal law under title 18. The section number is 1385. Please write its citation.

  1. What's the first thing you should do when researching a statute?

  1. How do you know when you're 100% done researching a case?




Extra credit: 2 pts



"Pocket parts" is the name given pamphlets used to update the contents of large legal volumes between publications. What do YOU think they should be called?


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