FYRW Secondary Sources  

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Research Method

• Frame Your Question
• Choose search/index terms
• Run Search/Look up Terms in Index
• Analyze your Results

What are Primary Sources?

What are Secondary Sources?

Print Secondary Sources

• Scenario 1 - snow and ice
• Apply Research Method
• Use Search Terms in Index
  • Massachusetts Practice
  • American Law Reports (ALR)
  • American Jurisprudence
  • Corpus Juris Secundum

Secondary Sources on Westlaw

• Senario 2 - tire swing and lake
• Apply Research Method
• Find a database
• Massachusetts Practice
• Use ToC
• Natural Language Searching
• Find Corpus Juris Secundum or Am Jur on Westlaw
• Run search from Mass Practice example

Secondary Sources on LexisNexis

• Scenario 3 - Lex and bicycle
• Apply Research Method
• Find ALR on Lexis
  • Find a Source
• Use Natural Language Searching

Review

• What is a secondary source?
• What are the research steps we take?
• What was the hardest part of the research?

Wendy is late for class.  She is rushing from her apartment in Brookline to the Law Tower.  She passes the Brookline Town Hall, where - evidently- someone has yet to shovel the sidewalk or put down any de-icer (like salt).   She tries to negotiate the icy sidewalk but falls and breaks her wrist.

Kerry lives in Boston.  She is invited to spend the month of August at her uncle's farm in Western Massachusetts.  On the farm is a lake, complete with tire swing.  Kerry wants to give the swing a try.  So, on her second day on the farm, she goes to the lake.  The surface of the lake is smooth and flat, and Kerry can't see anything below the water's surface.  She grabs the tire and swings out over the lake.  Unfortunately, she lets go directly over a large boulder hidden beneath the water's surface.  As she lands in the water, she hits the rock almost dead-on, and beaks her leg in 2 places.

Lex is a bike messenger working in Boston.  Last week, Lex was quickly riding his bicycle down Newbury Street on his way to work when, suddenly, someone opened the driver's side door of a car parked along the street directly in front of him.  Lex (and bike) hit the door at top speed and Lex (without bike) went flying over the door and landed on the street, painfully abrading much skin and causing other assorted injuries.