Introduction
There are a few tools in the law library that may be helpful to a paralegal performing investigation.
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory
Use this to research for a specific kind of attorney in a specific city, or check the volume containing digests of state laws for information about a state other than your own.
Form Books
Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms, Am. Jur. Trials, and West's Legal Forms are just three examples of sources for potential interrogatory, deposition, interview, or examination questions, in addition to other discovery materials. There are dozens of publications considered form books. Eventually you will develop your own favorites.
Am. Jur. Proof of Facts
This is also a form book, but almost deserves its own category. It provides so many sources for legal investigative purposes that to be familiar with it gives a paralegal a step up not only on other paralegals, but many attorneys as well. It may be worth taking a look at this book now, but you will learn much more about it in Volume II, Chapter 5.
NOTE:
RESEARCH FOR COURT RULES AND FORM BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER ARE NOT REQUIRED TO BE COMPLETED UNTIL VOLUME II, CHAPTER 5.
Paralegal Perspectives . . .
INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH
One of my favorite paralegal stories was told at my paralegal graduation by an attorney who specialized in airline litigation.
He worked for a major airline which had suffered through a tragic airline accident about two years earlier. The plane was taking off from Stapleton Airport in Denver, Colorado, and right after the wheels left the ground, the plane literally flipped over. As I recall, about 50 people died, but about 100 survived. No one could figure out why the plane had flipped.
The families were suing the airline, assuming it was some sort of pilot error or mechanical malfunction. Well, the attorney's paralegal was researching in Am. Jur. Proof of Facts, and suddenly she sees this diagram of something called wing vortex turbulence. It had diagrams, charts, and a discussion of how one plane's turbulence can effect another plane, depending on the speed of the planes and their distance from one another. Bingo. Using the diagrams and charts found in Am. Jur. Proof of Facts, she was able to calculate that a plane which had taken off a minute earlier on another runway would have had an affect on the plane that flipped. This established that the liability was with the Federal Aviation Administration, not the airline. As the attorney put it at my graduation, the case was won by a hardworking paralegal, and Am. Jur. Proof of Facts!
ABCs of Legal Research . . .
Make sure when you get to Chapter 5 in Volume II of this program that you use the online Labs to learn how to research Am. Jur. POF in the Law Library (under Form Books), on Westlaw, and on Lexis. If you know how to research Am Jur. POF in all three venues, you will have an advantage over other researchers.
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