Legal Study Guide CHAPTER ONE FIFTEEN review notes 4 Sources of Law 1 number one most important source of law is the United States Constitution 2 second source of law is the state constitution federal law always prevails over state law 3 judicial decisions Judges have the power to interpret and decide on a case Binding precedent when a judge makes a decision he writes down why he made this decision Stare Decisis follow the prior rulings go back and read previous decisions to inform yourself about how the law will apply to you today 4 administrative regulations has the greatest impact on businesses Congress will pass a broad law clean air act and then leaves it up to the agencies to do scientific research to make a scientific decisions about what safe air is Notice and comment rule making provides everyone notice of proposed regulations and publicizes it to the public Then if you have a concern with the proposal you can provide a comment with what you think is wrong with the bill At the end of the comment period they have to sort through all the proposed comments and consider each one Can go through notice and comment multiple times Hierarchy of Laws 1 US constitution 2 Federal Statutes 3 Federal Administrative Regulations 4 State Constitutions 5 State Statutes 6 State Administrative Regulations 7 Local Ordinances 8 Judicial Decisions case law Common law vs Civil law United States is a common law country In a common law system judges have a lot of discretion and power to interpret and apply the law the prior decisions that were made by the judges hold true in the future decisions to be made Civil law system judges look at one case at one time They have much less ability to interpret and apply the law in different ways Common law judges have more power to apply and interpret laws to different situations Example driving g ma to hospital after midnight and your under 18 o Common law its okay maybe because of the circumstance o Civil law after 12 under 18 guilty regardless of circumstances Civil cases vs Criminal cases Criminal law government is trying to punish you for breaking the law Civil law a case between two private parties we are in a common law system but we can have civil law suits in our common law system for example person suing a corporation In order to challenge overturn a regulation a party must show 1 the delegation of authority to the agency was improper 2 the agency failed to follow proper procedure 3 the agency exceeded its authority CHAPTER THREE Questions of law vs Questions of fact Question of Fact a question about what actually happened between two parties Who s lying and who is telling the truth Did you run the red light or not Questions of law what does the law mean and how does the law apply to your case the jury usually decided questions of fact and the judge usually decides question s of law sometimes there is a bench trial and there is no jury so the judge decides both Appellate courts almost never becomes involved in deciding questions of fact You only appeal to see if the trial court made the decision correctly This is why the appellate courts don t care about questions of fact Appellate courts write a lot of the judicial decisions trial courts can sometimes become involved in questions of fact you go from trial court to appellate court to Supreme Court Supreme court like appellate court only usually deals with questions of law Organization of the Court System 2 different court systems in the United States Federal Court and State Court state courts hear cases that come up under state law Ex contract law is state law tort law is state law property disputes Federal court only hears certain cases and it must be in 1 of these 4 categories Questions under federal law ex patents federal taxes employment discrimination terrorism If there is federal property then federal law applies Any case in which the United States government is a part of If the US government is being sued or suing someone etc If you have a controversial suit between two different state governments If the state of GA was suing the state of FL Diversity of citizenship cases if residents of two different states are suing one another Someone from GA is suing someone from FL It can go to federal court if the lawsuit is more than 75 000 dollars Can but do not have to go to federal court If either side wants to be heard in federal court then it will be heard in federal court but if both are okay with being heard in state court then it stays in state court First court trial court where you see jury and attorneys are giving opening statements questioning witnesses etc In federal court systems trial courts are called district courts From trail court you can file an appeal if you think their decision is wrong and you can go to appellate court This is where they deal with questions of law not questions of fact Next you go to the Supreme Court either state or federal supreme court It is very rare to get all the way up to the United States Supreme Court To get to the federal Supreme Court you have to file a writ of certiorari asking them to take your case There are 9 justices on US federal Supreme Court CHAPTER FOUR Pretrial Process o Pleadings initial papers filed with the court in order to file a lawsuit Complaint Starts the case Answer Has to respond to each and every allegation in the complaint Anything you fail to object to is considered admitted You can assert a counterclaim in this step Your response is due within 20 days if not reply you automatically lose the case Reply Only is necessary if there are counterclaims o Discovery 4 types Can last multiple years super long process and very pricey too Interrogatories Written question and answer Ex Identify any individual that has personal knowledge of the facts including all eyewitnesses Open ended questions Requests for Production of Documents I ask you for physical evidence that is in your possession o Could be anything even tires etc Depositions Questions and answers in real time with witnesses at one side of the table and the witnesses at the other o Done under oath Requests for Admission A written question and answer Yes or no questions o Motions When you ask the court for some type of relief Trial o Jury Selection Voir dire attorneys have the right to choose who is going to be on the jury Challenge for cause You have a good reason why someone should not serve on a jury Peremptory challenge You don t like something about them but you don t have