Law Multiple Choice Questions

1. The most well-known reference that covers citation form is commonly called:
A. The Maroon Book.
B. The Blue Book.
C. Citation Form at a Glance.
D. West's Annotated Guide to Citation Format.

2. A brief submitted by a nonparty with permission of the court is called:
A. An amicus curiae brief.
B. An annotated brief.
C. An appellate curiae brief.
D. Nonparties are not allowed to submit briefs.

3. Corpus Juris Secundum is an example of which of the following?
A. A casebook.
B. A legal encyclopedia.
C. An advance sheet.
D. A digest.

4. The full text of cases is found in volumes called:
A. Codes.
B. Citators.
C. Digests.
D. Reporters.

5. Each of the following contains opinions of the United States Supreme Court except:
A. United States Reports.
B. United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition.
C. United States Law Weekly.
D. United States Law Monthly.

6. Opinions of the lower federal courts are contained in:
A. Federal Reporter and Federal Supplement, which are both official.
B. Federal Reporter and Federal Supplement, which are both unofficial.
C. Federal Reporter and United States Reports, which are both unofficial.
D. Federal Reporter, Federal Supplement and United States Reports, which are all unofficial.

7. A parallel cite is:
A, An additional reference to the same material.
B. A reference to material that is tangentiatly related to your material.
C. A reference to any written material.
D. A reference to a headnote in Euclid's Geometry.

8. A Code is:
A. A collection of laws or rules in chronological order.
B. A collection of laws or rules by subject matter.
C. A collection of court opinions in chronological order.
D. A collection of court opinions by topic.

9. Which of the following statements is true?
A. West publishes regional digests for all regions, although it does not publish reporters for all regions
B. West publishes reporters for all regions, although it does not publish regional digests for all regions.
C. There is no such thing as a regional reporter.
D. Lawyer's Cooperative publishes regional reporters for those regions that West does
not publish a regional reporter.

10. The master index to the case law of our country that starts with the Century Digest is called:
A. Modem Federal Practice Digest.
B. Federal Digest.
C. American Digest.
D. West's Law Finder.

11. When researching a statute, it is important to always check the pocket part, because:
A. Pocket parts update the material in the bound volume.
B. Pocket parts often conceal short, sharp staples, known in the trade as "points of law."
C. Statutes are shepardized by the pocket parts.
D. Pocket parts contain criticism and commentary on the statutes which are not included in the bound
volume.

12. Scholarly treatises published by the American Law Institute which attempt to formulate the existing law in an area
such as Torts are called:
A. Formbooks.
B. Shepard's Formulation of Law.
C. Restatements.
D. Hornbooks.

13. Shepard's Citators do which of the following?
A. Show other cases that have cited your case.
B. Allow you to determine if your statute has been found to be unconstitutional.
C. Allow you to determine if your case has been overruled.
D. All the above.

14. Which of the following is an example of a legal periodical?
A. A merican Law Reports.
B. Restatement of the Law.
C. The Harvard Law Review.
D. Words and Phrases.

15. Total Client Services Library:
A. Is the way Lawyer's Co-op refers you to many of the books it publishes
B. Is the way West refers you to many of the books it publishes.
C. Refers readers only to Corpus Juris Secundum, the National Reporter System and Westlaw.
D. Is a minute part of Shepard's Citation service, which does nothing but tell you whether your case has been criticized.

16. Which of the following represents primary authority?
A. An ordinance.
B. A digest.
C. A Shepard's Citator.
D. A law dictionary.

17. Which of the following is nonauthority?
A. An unconstitutional statute.
B. A case that has been overruled.
C. A digest.
D. All of the above (A, B & C) are nonauthority.

18. Which of the following is not a regional digest?
A. North Eastern Digest.
B. Atlantic Digest.
C. Pacific Digest.
D. South Eastern Digest.

19. Each of the following is a secondary source that may be used for background research except:
A. Treatises, such as Prosser on Torts.
B. Legal encyclopedias, such as American Jurisprudence 2d.
C. Legal periodical literature, such as law review articles.
D. Rules of Court, such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

20. As a paralegal working for a Dallas, Texas, law firm, you embark upon a research project for your office's client who slipped and fell in a Dallas high school cafeteria. You know to begin research in the digests but you are sad to discover mat West does not publish a South Western Digest. What digest would be the next best place to start?
A, Texas Digest.
B. Pacific Digest.
C. South Eastern Digest.
D. Southern Digest.

21. Which of the following may be mandatory authority?
A. A law review article from a journal in the state that hears your case.
B. A Uniform System of Citation.
C. A statute from the state that hears your case.
D. American Jurisprudence 2d.

22. Caselaw that is contained in West's regional reporters is:
A. From state courts only.
B. From federal courts only.
C. From the United States Supreme Court only.
D. From the United States District Court only.

23. A legal dictionary is which type of authority?
A, Primary authority.
B. Mandatory authority.
C. Secondary authority.
D. Both A and B.

24. A court opinion contained in the Federal Reporter has been reversed by the United States Supreme Court. That
opinion in the Federal Reporter is called:
A. Mandatory authority.
B. Persuasive authority.
C. Secondary authority.
D. Nonauthority.

25. Each of the following may be persuasive authority except:
A. Any secondary authority that the court is not required to follow but does so because it finds the
secondary authority persuasive.
B. An opinion written by a court from a jurisdiction different from the one where the court considering the
opinion is sitting.
C. An opinion written from an inferior court within your jursidiction.
D. A finding aid such as Shepard's Citations.

26. Each of the following is true regarding the use of secondary authority except:
A. You should be sure that the secondary authority will be helpful to the court in adopting an interpretation
of the primary authority.
B. You should be sure you are using it as a substitution for primary authority.
C. You should be sure that a foundation for using the secondary authority can be demonstrated before using
and citing the secondary authority.
D. If you are citing it in a memorandum of law, you should discuss secondary authority after you discuss
the primary authority.

27. Generally, which of the following is not true with regard to background research?
A. It provides you with the current validity of Shepard's Citations.
B. It provides you with a general understanding of an area of law involved in your research problem.
C. It involves reading secondary sources such as treatises.
D. Background research is generally necessary to provide leads to cases and statutes.

28. Most of the factors mat a paralegal should consider in ending a research project are set forth below. Which of the
following would not be a reason for ending a research project?
A Finding authority on point.
B. Deadline.
C. Fully exhausting references in A Uniform System of Citation.
D. Exhausting research resources in local libraries.

29. Which of the following statements is true regarding digests0
A. They serve as case finders.
B. They contain small-paragraph summaries of court opinions organized by subject matter.
C. They are nonauthority.
D. All of the above (A, B, and C) are true.

30. Ordinances and statutes are examples of which of the following?
A. Primary authority.
B. Secondary authority.
C. Enacted law.
D. A and C, above.

31. Your firm's client's case is in your state's court of appeals. Your on point authority is contained in the United States Reports, and it is considered to be:
A. Secondary/Persuasive.
B. Primary/Persuasive.
C. Primary/Mandatory.
D. Nonauthority.

32. The Southern Reporter is:
A. Secondary authority.
B. Primary authority.
C. A federal reporter.
D. An official reporter.

33. Federal digests covering only federal courts include all of the following except:
A Federal Digest.
B. Modern Federal Practice Digest.
C. Regional Federal Practice Digest 4th.
D. Federal Practice Digest 2d.

34. Am.Jur. and C.J.S. are:
A. Good for background reading.
B. Good case finders.
C. Legal encyclopedias.
D. All of the above.

35. Unofficial reporters are:
A. Published under the authority of the government and include the United States Reports.
B. Printed by a private or commercial publishing company without special authority from the government
and include the United States Reports.
C. Printed by a private or commercial publishing company without special authority from the government
and include the Federal Supplement.
D. No longer in existence because they have all been discontinued since WWII.

36. The American Law Reports are:
A. Annotations which include extensive commentary.
B. Compilations of appellate briefs.
C. Published by West Publishing Company.
D. The official publication of U.S Supreme Court opinions.

37. Authority is:
A. Whatever the court must rely on in making its decision.
B. Whatever the legislature must rely on in making its decision.
C. Anything a court may or must rely on in making its decision.
D. Never cited to the court unless it has been reversed on appeal.

38. WESTLAW and LEXIS are:
A. Very inexpensive legal computer services that provide forms that greatly assist in the preparation of
Answers to Complaints and other pleadings.
B. Relatively expensive computer services that provide access to extensive legal research databases.
C. Computer services that provide a massive index to articles in medical periodicals.
D. Found in the National Reporter Blue Book.

39. Which of the following is primary authority?
A. Ballentine's Law Dictionary.
B. Words and Phrases.
C. C.J.S.
D. P.2d

40. Which of the following is non-authority?
A. Shepard's Citations.
B. Pacific Digest.
C. A case that has been reversed on appeal.
D. Each of the above, A, B and C, is non-authority.