1This article will discuss legal research tips for California although some of the tips will be useful

for someone doing legal research in any state. I will be assuming that the reader has a basic understanding of what types of legal materials are available for California. I will concentrate mainly on legal research for California as it relates to case law. There are three basic kinds of published cases for California. 1. California Supreme Court cases that are published in the California Official Reports. All decisions of the Supreme Court are published in the California Official Reports. See California Rule of Court 8.1105. Cited as Cal. or C. California Court of Appeal cases that are published in the California Official Appellate Reports. Only certain decisions of the Court of Appeal are published. Cited as Cal.App., or CA. Cases from the Appellate Division of various Superior Courts in California. Each county has an Appellate Division. Only certain cases of the Appellate Divisions are published. The cases are published in the California Official Appellate Reports Supplement, cited as Cal. App. Supp., or CA Supp.

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Note that only published cases can be cited or relied upon unless they fall under an exception. See California Rule of Court 8.1115. Thus it is vital to ensure that any case you are looking at is in fact a published case. Note that just because a case has a California Reporter, Daily Journal, Lexis or other citation does NOT mean that it has been published in the Official Reports. Be sure to verify that the case is published before using it. Failure to do so is a big mistake! It is also essential that you READ THE ENTIRE CASE to ensure that it is applicable to your situation. This author has on numerous occasions read a motion that cites a case and when he read the case he found that it either, (a) did not really say what was claimed by the opposing party, or (b) that the case did say what was quoted, but it was taken out of context, such as for example, the opposing party wanted the Court to dismiss the case because they alleged proper service had not been made quickly enough, however the case cited referred to a statute that said a case could be dismissed if the summons and complaint had not been served within two (2) years of filing! However in the case mentioned it had only been a month or two since the case was filed! Obviously their tactic did not work. Remember that the short summary of a case does not always tell you how the Court ruled. For that you need to actually read it. Dont get caught like a deer stuck in the headlights. Read every case that you cite. And read every case cited by your opponent from start to finish. You will be surprised how many attorneys and parties fail to read a case before citing it. All they read is the short blurb in the annotated code, or in a legal treatise. They are either too busy, or too lazy to bother with it. In the opinion of this author, if you are going to do a job do it right. If you have access to a law library, looking through the indexes, such as the West index for California, or another treatise such as CA JUR for the legal issue you are researching, or one of the Rutter Group books published on your legal topic, is highly recommended. That can save you literally hours of research time as opposed to other methods. Of course if you have online access

to either Westlaw or Lexis then you have a tremendous resource available to you. Make the most of it. Both companies offer training in how to use their database. Both companies also offer access to their database on a pay per use basis but that can be very expensive if you do not know how to use them. Be sure to verify that the case you want to cite, or that has been cited by your opponent, has not been overruled by a higher court, or disapproved, or that other Courts of Appeal disagree with the reasoning. For that you will need to either use Westlaw or Lexis to make sure that your case is still good law. Failure to do so can be a big mistake! You do not want to cite a case that is no longer good law. Particularly if you are representing yourself. That will really make you look bad in Court. If instead every case you cite says exactly what you wrote in your brief or motion, and the case is still good law then you will look good in Court. The author of this article, Stan Burman, is a freelance paralegal who has worked in California litigation since 1995. Mr. Burman may be contacted by e-mail at DivParalgl@yahoo.com for more information. Visit his website at http://www.legaldocspro.net If you would like to subscribe to his weekly legal newsletter click on the following link: http://www.legaldocspro.net/newsletter.htm