Missouri Legal Research Workbook

Book excerpt: Missouri Legal Research Workbook is designed to accompany Missouri Legal Research. Part I of this workbook includes self-guided tours of the law library. They are designed to help the novice legal researcher become familiar with legal sources by examining those sources in a directed manner. Using a problem-solving approach, each tour shows the student various features of legal authority in the context of a specific legal issue. Each tour leads the student through the finding tools and the authority by using the three approaches to legal research detailed in Missouri Legal Research. New to the second edition is the integration of print and electronic sources within each tour. This assists students in obtaining a better understanding of how legal researchers use different media for different purposes and at different points in their research plan. At the end of each tour is a tour check-up that highlights critical information from that tour. These check-ups focus on bibliographic features of the authority and on when the authority should be used in a research plan. Part II of the workbook contains research exercises. The predominant focus of the exercises is Missouri and federal research sources. Using this workbook gives the student practice in researching Missouri statutes, Missouri case law, Missouri administrative law, and Missouri secondary sources in addition to federal sources. This workbook includes six exercises for each primary authority, for secondary sources, and for federal legislative history. Each research exercise focuses on incorporating print and electronic sources. Additional online exercises focus on using citators, using free-access online sources, choosing databases, and constructing search queries. This book is part of the Legal Research Series, edited by Suzanne E. Rowe, Director of Legal Research and Writing, University of Oregon School of Law.