Louisiana Legal Research: Secondary Resources

Louisiana is a mixed legal jurisdiction with strong ties to French and Spanish Civil Law. There are differences between the civil law practiced in Louisiana and the common law practiced in the other 49 states. Although some of those differences have been bridged, some of the secondary materials discussed in this lesson vary greatly from the secondary materials of other jurisdictions.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Explain some of the differences between the civil law practiced in Louisiana and the common law practiced in the other 49 states.
2. List three secondary sources.
3. Discuss how two secondary sources would be used.
4. Create a search starting with secondary sources.
5. Discuss the importance of treatises that are substantive, analytical and theoretical treatments of legal topics and how to find them.
6. Analyze practice guides as a secondary resource that may contain forms, evidence rules, rules of procedure in jurisdictions, and explain how the law has been interpreted.