Legal Writing & Research

Students will be able...

1. to find relevant caselaw for a given legal issue using the Notes of Decisions for a statute.
2. to collect additional relevant caselaw using West Topic and Key Numbers and Lexis Topic/Subtopics from one relevant case.

Jordan is a dog handler who lives in Solana Beach, California. Sydney, a rival handler from Mission Viejo, does not handle losing to Jordan well.

The last four times Sydney was waiting when Jordan arrived at Solana Beach Dog Grooming. Each time Sydney watched Jordan enter before driving away laughing.

Jordan has received 17 phone calls with only the sounds of dogs barking on the other end.

After losing again, Sydney yelled across the course, “I will end this one way or another!” When confronted by the host Sydney said, “It’s not like I was threatening to kill him.”

Does what Sydney did count as a credible threat for criminal stalking in California?

1. Preliminary Information
   • Jurisdiction: California
2. Issue statement
   • Does what Sydney did count as a credible threat for criminal stalking in California?
3. Search Terms
   • credible threat
   • criminal stalking
4. Secondary Sources
   • e.g., 6 California Criminal Defense Practice § 142.11A (2024)
5. Primary Sources

To be continued next class...

Statutes

1. Notes of Decisions and Other Statutory Annotations

Cases

2. West Topic and Key Number & Lexis Topic and Subtopic
3. Finding Additional Cases Using One Relevant Case