EL 1: Advanced Case Law Research
Students will be able to:
- Use a statute annotation, party name, or digest to find relevant federal and state case law
- Select appropriate cases to cite for legal issues
- Demonstrate an ability to ethically conduct predictive searching
- Demonstrate an ability to use paid and free resources to find and update relevant federal and state case law
EL 2: Advanced Statutory Research
Students will be able to:
- Devise and execute a plan for researching a statutory interpretation issue
- Use an index, table of contents, and popular names table to find relevant sections of federal and state codes
- Analyze relevant annotations to federal and state codes, including history, notes of decisions, and other citing references
- Demonstrate an ability to use paid and free resources to find and update relevant federal and state statutory law
- Demonstrate an ability to find superseded versions of federal and state codes
EL 3: Advanced Regulatory Research
Students will be able to:
- Explain the relationship between statutes and regulations
- Use an index, table of contents, and annotations from a statute to find relevant sections of the Code of Federal Regulations
- Analyze relevant annotations to a regulation, including statutory authority and source note
- Demonstrate an ability to use paid and free resources to find and update relevant federal regulations and administrative decisions
EL 4: Advanced Legislative History Research
Students will be able to:
- Describe the stages of the legislative process and identify documents that are produced in each stage
- Explain how legislative history documents are used in legal analysis and statutory interpretation
- Use bill numbers to find relevant legislative history documents for federal and state statutes
- Demonstrate an ability to use paid and free resources to find relevant federal and state legislative history documents
EL 5: Emerging Legal Research Technologies
Students will be able to:
- Identify modern types of legal research technologies and explain their use in law practice
- Search and evaluate state legal ethics opinions on legal research technologies
- Describe law practice management software characteristics and their use in law practice
- Create a law practice information technology plan
- Explain the lawyer's duty of tech competence as it relates to legal research technologies
EL 6: Texas Legal Research
Students will be able to:
- Identify and use essential Texas legal resources, including but not limited to Fastcase, Texas Legislature Online, Texas Legislative Reference Library, and the Texas Secretary of State's website
- Demonstrate an ability to use free resources to find relevant Texas primary law resources
- Select relevant resources to solve a Texas research issue
EL 7: Interdisciplinary & Empirical Research
Students will be able to:
- Explain how interdisciplinary and empirical research can be utilized in legal arguments
- Design and execute a research plan using interdisciplinary and/or empirical materials
- Demonstrate an ability to find major social science and statistical resources to support their legal argument(s)
EL 8: Factual & Public Records Research
Students will be able to:
- Explain how different types of factual research can be utilized in law practice
- Explain the ethical issues related to searching for records
- Demonstrate an ability to find company financials
- Demonstrate an ability to conduct individual person searching (e.g., on judges, experts, or other lawyers)
- Demonstrate an ability to find vital records
- Demonstrate an ability to find medical and scientific information
EL 9: Legal News & Current Awareness
Students will be able to:
- Explain the importance of lawyers being knowledgable about legal news and current events
- Identify reputable resources that help lawyers stay current, including news, bill tracking resources, and other tools
- Demonstrate an ability to use current awareness tools to track cases, legislation, and rule-making
- Evaluate current awareness resources and create a strategy for staying current, including setting alerts
EL 10: Free & Low-Cost Resources
Students will be able to:
- Explain the benefits, limitations, and ethical considerations of using free & low-cost legal resources
- Demonstrate an ability to navigate the four-step research process using free & low-cost legal resources
- Demonstrate an ability to find briefs, pleadings, motions, and orders using free & low-cost legal resources
- Evaluate free & low-cost legal resources and the authority of their host platforms
EL 11: Evaluating Your Research
Students will be able to:
- Explain the biases inherent to the creation and dissemination of legal information
- Summarize the criteria by which legal professionals evaluate print and electronic legal resources
- Demonstrate an ability to apply those criteria to electronic and print legal resources to determine the reliability of those sources
EL 12: Constitutional Research
Students will be able to:
- Explain where constitutions fall within the hierarchy of authority
- Use an index and table of contents to find relevant sections of federal and state constitutions
- Analyze relevant annotations to federal and state constitutions, including history, notes of decisions, and other citing references
- Demonstrate an ability to use paid and free resources to find relevant provisions of federal and state constitutions
