Get Focused

What is it that you want?  Money?  Fame?  Fortune?  Amnesia so that you can forget all the stuff you'd rather not remember?

The other day, as I was driving to work, I noticed a little black sports car coming up on my 6 at an accelerated rate of speed.  I noted that black sports car driver wasn't paying attention to where she was going as she looked up (from, I'm presuming, her phone) just before she slammed into the back of my car, slammed on her breaks, swore a blue streak, flipped me off, screamed some more, changed lanes, swore some more, flipped me off again, and sped off to tailgate someone else - because tailgating is an Olympic sport around here.

I'm guessing what Black sports car wanted was a lawsuit - given how she was driving.

Sad that.  I mean, did black sports car wake up thinking, "Today I'm going to drive like a crazy lady and rear-end someone?"  Probably not but as long as she tries to focus on two things (drive and phone), she's on a short road to the junkyard.

This all reminds me of the student who contacted me the other day.  Seems student is looking to write a research paper.  Seems student has not quite thought out what they want to write about since, when I asked what they wanted to write about, student said: Real Estate.

Uh huh.

The problem with this is that "Real Estate" (i.e. property) is pretty nebulous (as in a really big topic).  I mean, there are hundreds of avenues that can be taken when examining Real Estate.  Like, do you want to talk about eminent domain?  How about zoning, or hazards and disclosures?  Maybe environmental issues, cell phone towers, or do the effects of low-income housing on property values, catch your eye?  Yeah, there are a number of ways student could take this.

I know, when I'm in a quandary about where to start researching (or even picking a topic), I know I can always reach out to the Digests.

Organized by headnote topics and key numbers, the digests is a system of identifying points of law top help locate cases related to thousands of topics.  The digest works like an encyclopedia in that the topics are listed in alphabetical order and printed on the spine of the book.

Each case published in a West Reporter is evaluated by an editor who identifies the points of law cited or explained in a case.  Each case published in a West Reporter is evaluated by an editor who identifies the points of law cited or explained in a case.  

The editor places the summaries of the points of law covered at the beginning of the case.  These summaries are usually a paragraph long and are called headnotes.  Each headnote is then assigned a topic and key number. The headnotes are arranged according to their topic and key number in a multi-volume set of books called Digests.  A digest serves as a subject index to the case law published in west reporters. 

Got all that?

Now, I could go all day on how to use the Digests but let's break things down simple.  So, the easiest way to work the Digests is to look on the spine of the book. 

So, find the general subject you want to use and pull that book.  For example:

• Looking in the United States Supreme Court Digest for cases on Insurance, Look in Vols. 8B & 8C
• Federal Practice Digest 5th Series for Bankruptcy, look in Vols. 31-61 (a mere 31 volumes)
• 11th Decennial Digest Part 3 for Civil Rights, look in Vols. 11-13,
• Southeastern Digest 2d for Homicide, look in Vols. 26D-27B

See?  Easy peasy.  

Of course, there are other ways to find what you need - like hunting down a legal information professional (i.e. law LIBRARIAN) who can help you find whatever it is you need to be finding.

So, whether you want to hunt alone or hunt with a wingman, know that you're covered whenever you walk into a library because Librarians are here to help YOU!