Legal Dictionary

Category: One-L

  • Secondary Source

    A source that explains, analyzes or interprets primary source information. Examples are law review articles, encyclopedias, and books. These sources may lead you to key primary sources as well as other secondary sources….

  • Table Of Cases

    A list of cases appearing at the beginning of a periodical index that provides the name and citation of articles written about a particular case. In a digest, a table of cases can help you identify a case’s citation when you know only one or both of the parties’ names….

  • Slip Opinion

    A court opinion that is published individually after being rendered and then collected in advance sheets before being released for publication in a reporter….

  • Primary Sources

    The actual law itself whether constitutional, statutory, administrative (regulations) or case law. The United States Code is a primary source. A book discussing and explaining the code is a secondary source….

  • Parallel Citation

    The page on which a quotation or relevant passage appears, as opposed to the page on which the case or article begins…

  • Pocket Part

    A supplemental pamphlet inserted usually in the back cover of law book to update the material in the text…

  • Nutshell

    A paperback book that provides a concise explanation of the law on a specific topic. …

  • LegalTrac

    An index of periodical literature that indexes most English-language legal periodical literature from 1980 to the present. Since this is an index, the full-text of the journals are not in LegalTrac. Among other things, you can search for records in LegalTrac by author, title, subject, and […]

  • Official Publications

    Cases, regulations and statutes are published electronically or in book format in either official or unofficial publications. Official publications are those that have been authorized by statute or governmental ruling. Unofficial publications, which have not been so sanctioned, often have […]

  • Key Number

    The key number is a West Publishing feature to promote the location of materials. Key numbers correspond to designated points of law. Each point of law in a given opinion has a headnote which is assigned to the appropriate topic and key number within the overall classification scheme. As topics […]

  • Headnote

    A summary of a point of law written by the publisher’s editorial staff or the court reporter. Each point of law in an opinion will have a corresponding headnote. Headnote is sometimes referred to as a syllabus….

  • Index To Legal Periodicals & Books

    Also known as ILP, this source has indexed articles in law reviews since the nineteenth century and it has indexed books since 1994. In addition to a subject/author index, it has a table of cases and a table of statutes, which allow you to locate articles on a particular case or statute. The […]

  • Digests

    Finding tools that provide subject access to cases. Digests are usually a multi-volume publication and the entries are arranged according to a subject outline. Among other things, entries contain case summaries….

  • Et Seq.

    Latin meaning and the following. It is used in statutory citations such as 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. to indicate that the referenced statute begins at section 2000e and continues through an unspecified number of subsequent sections. Note that Rule 3.4(b) of the Bluebook prohibits the […]

  • Descriptive Word Index

    See alsoAn alphabetical list of topics with references to the place these topics… (Read more)…