Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is the difference between taking the courses 208 and 208.1?
At the beginning of the class you will all have signed up for 208. If you decide that you want to do four, graded assignments, the last of which will due on our final day of class (to be determined) then just stay signed up for 208. There is no final examination. Our experience is that most students prefer this option.
The other option is to do a Pathfinder and two assignments (any combination of #1, #2, #3 but not #4. However, if you don't do assignment #1 then you must do the Pathfinder.) A Pathfinder is a research guide to a subject area of
law. For a more detailed discussion, see the Pathfinder
handout. If you choose this option you’ll need to drop 208
and enroll in 208.1. We will grade 208 and 208.1 as separate classes,
with separate curves, so it’s really important that you enroll
in the correct class.
Q. Is this course about computers?
A. The course is about research. We will teach you how to use traditional research sources, which are printed on paper, a three dimensional form of communication that involves printing symbols onto pieces of fiber. You cannot be a good legal researcher if you don't know how to use these (a truth discovered each summer by law students who thought they could live by Westlaw and Lexis alone.) We will also discuss full text legal research systems and search engines like Google.
Q. I don't know anything about legal research, can I handle Advanced Legal Research?
A. Of course you can't handle advanced research, but fortunately this isn't really advanced research. We begin with a review of the basics and move out from there. We will assume that you know or remember very little.
Q. Is this a Socratic method or lecture-style class?
A. We try to offer a little bit of everything,
but a large portion of the course is presented in lecture format. We
do expect students to participate in some discussion as well. We also
do a fair amount of in-class computer demonstrations. We are aware that
putting up research tools on the big screen is not always the optimal
method of teaching research, but we’ve found that it’s the
best we can manage in a large, lecture format. We will always post relevant class materials to the course website before the class session. This is oftentimes a powerpoint slide show or a web-based research guide. These materials contain the examples that we will use in the class demonstrations so students do not have to follow every mouse click of the instructors. Students can then revisit these class materials outside of class and while working on the assignments.
We also try to bring
in relevant guest lecturers. Finally, there may be some classes that
will take place in the computer labs (we'll have to arrange a different
time schedule, as we don't have labs large enough for the entire class).
Q. What are the research assignments like?
A. They are open ended. This means you may have to interpret and analyze the research issues and you'll have to use your head a bit. These assignments do take some time to complete. One or two of the assignments may even force you to use resources outside the law school. This will be traumatic, but we have only lost a few students in the past.
Q. Is there a text?
A. Yes. Finding The Law 12th Ed. by Bob Berring and Elizabeth Edinger. You will actually have to read it. We will also assign other readings and we expect you to read these as well. This book is a bit out of date, but is still an excellent resource for the traditional research tools.
Q. What kind of computer skills are expected for this class and what kinds of skills will I learn if I take this class?
A. We presume that you have a basic understanding of Boolean (Terms and Connectors) and natural language searching on Lexis and Westlaw and that you have basic familiarity with the Web. We have asked our friends at Lexis and Westlaw to offer some refresher classes fairly early in the semester. We will also offer web searching classes through the library. If you need to brush up on these computer basics, you should sign up for these classes. We will discuss and demonstrate certain aspects of Lexis, Westlaw and Web searching in Advanced Legal Research, and you will be expected to use these research tools in your assignments and in your Pathfinders.
Q. How do I access subscription databases from off-campus?
A. Many of the databases that we show you in the course are subscription
services. When you are using these databases from on-campus or from
a residence hall you are automatically recognized as originating from
a UC Berkeley IP address. However, if you are trying to use the database
from home you will need to configure your browser to use the main library’s
proxy server. This only takes a couple of minutes and instructions can
be found at: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu/.
Some examples of subscription databases that you may using are LegalTrac,
CQ Weekly,
BNA
Looseleafs, and Lexis-Nexis
Academic Service.