Business Law 101 / LEGAL RESEARCH SOURCES-Part 1

By Albert L. Kelley, Esq.

Throughout this column I have talked about many issues and cited many laws and court cases. I have tried to demystify some of the issues of the law. While for many, lawyers are a regular part of business (and truthfully, I don’t think any business should be started without consulting an attorney and an accountant), others prefer to do basic research for themselves. Thankfully, the internet has made legal research easier. Most statutes, rules and codes are available online if you know how to find them. Also many cases are available online. However, for more detailed legal research you must subscribe to a legal research provider like Westlaw or Fastcase.

While I can’t teach legal research in this column (law schools have entire courses dedicated to learning about legal research, and the skills needed are developed only through years of practice), I will attempt to give a thumbnail sketch.

First, the books. When dealing with Florida law, if you don’t have access to the internet, there are five sets of books to be intimately familiar with. The Florida Statutes, Southern Reporter, Shepard’s Citations, West Digest, and Florida Jurisprudence.

Florida Statutes (Annotated if possible- the FSA). The Annotated Statutes is a series of books that detail the Florida statutes in numerical order (There are over 900 chapters in the Florida Statutes and each Chapter has numerous statutes). After publishing the statute, the book then lists a basic history of the current version of the statute and provides a thumbnail sketch of some cases that have interpreted it. The FSA is very easy to use and comes with a very comprehensive set of index books. The statutes and annotations are updated annually in what is referred to as a “pocket part” which is a booklet that is inserted into the back cover of the book. After reviewing the statute, you should be sure to look in the pocket part to see if the law has been modified or deleted. While the annotation may be helpful in clarifying the law, you should never trust the annotation to be correct. When doing research you should always read the complete case to ensure that it says what the annotation indicates. Occasionally, the annotation will be wrong.

The second set of books are called “Southern Reporter”. There are actually three series of Southern Reporters. The first covers two hundred volumes covering cases before 1941; the second series covers cases from 1941-2008 and the third series covers cases after 2008. These books hold all of the reported cases from the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Courts of Appeal. This is where most of Florida law comes from. The books are not easy to use unless you know what case you are looking for. While the books have small topic references in them, there are other books which we will discuss next week that are better for looking up topics. The Southern Reporters are best used once you know which case you want to read. Cases are cited by the book and page number where they are located along with the Court and year they were decided. For example, a citation that reads: Key West Polo Club Developers, Inc. v Tower Const. Co. of Panama City, Inc., 589 So.2d 917 (Fla. 3DCA 1991) tells us that the case involved the two parties Key West Polo Club Developers, Inc. and Tower Construction Company of Panama City, Inc., that it was decided by the Third District Court of Appeals in 1991, and that a copy of the case can be found in volume 589 of the Southern Reporter, 2nd Series, at page 917. These cases tell you what the Courts have said about the law. The Courts rulings are binding on all lower Courts in the same district (the Circuit Courts must follow the rulings of the District Court of Appeals, which must follow the rulings of the Supreme Court). However, just because a case says what you want it to say, it still may not be the law. Next week we will see how to determine if the law of a case is correct.

Al Kelley is a Florida business law attorney located in Key West and previously taught business law, personnel law and labor law at St. Leo University. He is also the author of “Basics of Business Law” “Basics of Florida’s Small Claims Court” and “Basics of Florida’s Landlord-Tenant Law” (Absolutely Amazing e-Books). This article is being offered as a public service and is not intended to provide specific legal advice. If you have any questions about legal issues, you should confer with a licensed Florida attorney.

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