Print Resource of the Month: Handbook on Louisiana Evidence Law

From January to May, we are focusing this series on Louisiana-specific materials intended to be helpful for practice (or that are just really interesting). Check back each month for updates!

This month we're utilizing Handbook on Louisiana Evidence Law. Although there is a lot of great guidance for evidence law, even specific to Louisiana, that is available electronically, this is a great resource because it is an all-in-one handbook - so much so that it may be even more convenient than other online sources (gasp!). 

Here are some reasons why you might want to take a look:

• Extensive overview of legislative history from the 1988 passage of the Code and subsequent amendments
• Easy comparison of Louisiana Code and Federal Rules of Evidence
• References to commentary dealing with more specific issues - Daubert decisions, DNA testing in paternity cases, rules of evidence in family law, choice of law, automotive recalls. 
• Important provisions re evidence from the US and Louisiana Constitutions, US Code, Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure, Code of Criminal Procedure, Children's Code, and Revised Statutes
• Excerpts from the Rules of Professional Conduct and Louisiana Supreme Court Rules

Note that the text of the Code of Evidence is included twice - in the first half of the book with only the language of the Code and in the second half with official comments and extensive authors' notes. (This second part is where the real goodness lies.)

You can find this book in the Reserve Collection on the first floor or in Reference on the second floor of the library at KFL 540 .H36. New editions are typically printed every year with updates reflecting amendments, new cases, and new commentary.

Print Resource of the Month: Louisiana Civil Jury Instruction Companion Handbook

From January to May, we are focusing this series on Louisiana-specific materials intended to be helpful for practice (or that are just really interesting). Check back each month for updates!

Last month’s post discussed Trial Handbook for Louisiana Lawyers , a book that provides a wide range of information related to practice in LA district courts. The resource this week focuses on one aspect of courtroom practice: jury instructions.

Louisiana Civil Jury Instruction Companion Handbook is a great resource for practicing attorneys because usually lawyers write and submit jury instructions without pattern instructions to follow. This book compiles jury instructions that were actually given in particular cases with additional notes to serve as a guide for practitioners. It is designed as a “companion handbook” to work in conjunction with another popular treatise on LA jury instructions, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Civil Jury Instructions (available in print KFL 542.6 .J64 and on WestlawNext).

Andrea Beauchamp Carroll, Louisiana Civil Jury Instruction Companion Handbook (2014-2015 ed. 2014). (KFL 542.6 .L68)

The Federal Lawyer

If you’re interested in federal practice, you’ll probably be interested in The Federal Lawyer. This periodical is a publication of the Federal Bar Association and is published ten times a year. The library has this magazine in print for the use of all patrons (K6 .E285). Electronic subscriptions are included in Federal Bar Association memberships or can be purchased.

“The Federal Lawyer, the official publication of the Federal Bar Association, is the only magazine written and edited for lawyers who practice in federal courts or have an interest in federal law as well as judges who sit on the federal bench. Editorial content covers a broad range of topics including immigration, Indian, antitrust, labor and employment, bankruptcy, criminal, intellectual property, environmental, and other types of law that fall within federal jurisdiction. Through the magazine’s extensive and up-to-date editorial coverage of these legal issues, federal practitioners are able to obtain the latest pronouncements and theories of importance to the federal legal system.”

Print Resource of the Month: Trial Handbook for Louisiana Lawyers

From now until May, we will focus this series on Louisiana-specific materials intended to be helpful for practice (or that are just really interesting). Check back each month for updates!



This month we’re highlighting Trial Handbook for Louisiana Lawyers, a publication of the Louisiana Practice Series, written by the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

This practice-oriented book “is designed to be a quick reference for the journeyman trial lawyer who spends his or her life representing clients in trial courts of Louisiana.” There are thirty-four chapters, a table of laws and rules, a table of cases, and an index. The entire range of trial subjects are covered from the role of attorneys, to examination of witnesses and evidence rules, to the verdict and judgment.  

Trial Handbook is available in the stacks, in reference, and in the Reserve Collection at KFL 530 .F34. It is also available online through WestlawNext. 

Eldon E. Fallon, Louisiana Practice: Trial Handbook for Louisiana Lawyers (3rd ed. 2007 & Supp. 2015). 

Immigration Briefings: A Resource You Should Know

This monthly periodical is a must-use for any immigration practitioners and researchers. It provides up-to-date analysis on a variety of important issues written by practitioners and commentators.

The print version is available in the library on the second floor at KF 4800.A15. An electronic version is available on WestlawNext. Simply begin typing in the title and select it on the pop-up options. Then you can search this resource the way you would anything else in WestlawNext. 

Recent article titles include:

• Families Behind Bars: The Intersection of Politics, Law, and Detention
• Handling the Complex Naturalization Application
• The Tricky Triangle: Marriage, Divorce, and Permanent Residence
• Healthy Regardless of Status: Expanding Access to Health Care for Noncitizens

Print Resource of the Month – State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts: A Compilation of Enacted and Recently Proposed Legislation

This book should be used by anyone with an interest in religious freedom questions, issues in corporate personality, and LGBT rights. This book compiles all current state religious freedom acts. A table of documents lists where legislative intent or other legislative history materials may be found (though admittedly, there are not many). The editor notes where acts failed to pass and provides a bibliography that will be helpful for general research.

  

Recent interest in religious freedom restoration laws has its origins in the early 1990s with the passage of the federal Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. After the Supreme Court in 1997 found that the Act applied only to the federal government in City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), states began adopting these types of laws. Interest in this matter has skyrocketed since Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014), in which the Supreme Court held that a for-profit corporation could hold religious beliefs. More recently, these acts have made headlines in relation to LGBT issues and the inclusion of same-sex couples in the right to marry in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015).

State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts: A Compilation of Enacted and Recently Proposed Legislation (William H. Manz ed., 2015). KF 4783 .Z95 S73

Print Resource of the Month: Guide to International Legal Research

Welcome to our new monthly segment, Print Resource of the Month! On the first week of each month we’ll be highlighting a print resource available in the Law Library. That’s a lot of books so check back often for new information. We’ll be tagging these posts with appropriate tags at the bottom; you can use these tags throughout the blog to help guide your research.

This month we’re taking a look at Guide to International Legal Research. Produced by the George Washington International Law Review, this book is a must-utilize for research on public international law, private international law, and comparative law. This guide provides a researcher with a comprehensive list of law and law-related sources to help jump-start any research concerning international law.

“[I]t provides sources that address not only relations between States, but also the relations between States and international organizations, subnational actors, and non-state actors.” 

The introduction provides an overview of sources of international law, including the traditional sources like conventions and customs, while introducing the influence of municipal courts and soft law. Chapters are arranged by geographic region – like South Asia and the Middle East – and by subject – like intellectual property and maritime law.

The two biggest strengths of this resource are the annotations providing summaries of the sources listed and the inclusion of official (or at least reputable) websites where available.

Find it in the Reference Section on the second floor of the library, KZ 1234 .G85.

GEORGE WASH. INT’L LAW REVIEW, GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL LEGAL RESEARCH (2015).