LEGAL WRITING -The nature of Legal Writing Authority is any published source of law setting forth rules, legal

doctrine or legal reasoning that could be used as legal basis for legal decision. What is authority? - It consists of legal information such that to a certain degree may influence or persuade a judicial body or officer to decide one way or the other. The weight of the legal information is the estimation on how it would influence decision making. Kinds of Authority -Primary or mandatory authority is binding upon the courts, like The constitutional provisions, statutes, international conventions and treaties Secondary authority is persuasive or optional only. IT may not be binding upon the courts, but they contain excellent analysis and therefore provides guidance for any court ruling. Ex. Opinions of the Secretary of Justice or of Administrative Agencies. What are Legal encyclopedias - they are multi-volume sets describing systematically the entire body of law wherein expository statements on principles of law are alphabetically arranged. There are no table of cases in the indexes. Examples American Jurisprudence, 2d Corpus Juris Secondum (C.J.S.)Cyclopedia of Philippine Law two volumes of Venidas Encyclopedia of Philippine Law and Jurisprudence Examples of Cyclopedia Corpus Juris Secumdum (CJS) West Pub. 1959. 101 v. & 5v. American Jurisprudence 2d Z(AmJr. 2d) Lawyers Cop., 2965-1978 83 v. International Encyclopedia of Comparative Laws Encyclopedia Juridica Espanola (F Seix, ed. 1910. 30 v Modern Legal Systems: A Cyclopedia

(K. Redden v. Halsburys Laws of England 2d ed. 1952 12 v. A Hornbook is a popular reference to a series of treatises published by the West Publication Group. It is a review of a certain field of law in summary textual form. Practice Manual - This material provides you with a good understanding of the procedural and substantive law as well as hands on instructions to file your proper casein courts. This is a handbook that covers a specified area of practice. Exs. - Handbook on Trial Advocacy - (USAID , 208) . American Jurisprudence Trials, . covers trial and court practice American jurisprudence Proof of Facts - provides s detailed discussion of What must be proved in virtually e very kind of civil or criminal case, It also Contains checklists and planning guides to aid in the establishments of the Facta in issue2. Page.. Forms Books - They are vital aid in drafting legal documents and include simple instruments which are standard guides for lawyers, even law students in the legal writing course. Examples S. Guevara .. Legal formsAnnotated.. 1977L.M. Tanada & F.A. Rodrigo, Philippine Legal Forms, 1979 2 v/F.C. Fisher.. Philippine Legal and Business Forms 4th Ed. 1948American Jurisprudence Legal Forms, Annotated, with pockets supplements American Jurisprudence , Pleading and Practice Manual, with supplements Annotations are explanations or commentaries or extensive notes based on the issues within opinions of a court usually appended after a reprint case is compilation. Ex. Philippine Annotated Law (P.A.L.)U&.S. Code Annotated U.S.C.A.U.S. Code Service U.S. C.S.Textual - expository essays of varying lengths on significant legal topics chosen for selected cases with essays. Ex. Supreme Court Reports Annotated (SCRA) V.1 - 1961 to date American Law Reports (ALR) Note: Editors select a case in point

to illustrate a principle of law that warrants annotation and discusses all cases involving an issue and give exceptions to and qualifications and applications of those principles. Finding Tools It is the lawyers job to ascertain the state of the law on a particularly issue in order to be able to predict with reasonable certainty the success of a cause of action or defense. Thus, they are faced with a problem of locating primary authorities on which they and the court will rely on in determining the outcome of a case . What are these tools Digest they are indexes to reported cases, providing brief. Unconnected statements of court holdings on points of law which are arranged per subject Ex. Philippine Digests, 1909 to 1945 Republic of the Philippines Digest 1946 to 1966 with supplement Philippine Reports, 1974 to date U.P. Law Center SCRA Digest 4v. with Annual Index Digest American Law Reports (ALR) digests American Digest System- divides law into 7 main classes =Persons, property, Contracts, Torts, Crimes, Remedies or proceduresGovernments. Under the last category, we taxation, political law, election lawsAdministrative laws, and local governments, trade regulations Page 3.LAW DICTIONARIESLegal Dictionaries collect the definition of legal terms in alphabetical order withcitations to source either from statute, decision or text. Ex. F, Moreno, Philippine Law Dictionary 2 nd Ed. 1982I.G. Khan, Jr. Everybodys Law Dictionary of Philippine Law, 2007M.J. Gamboa, Dictionary of International Law and Diplomacy, 1973Ballantine:s Law Dictionary, 3

rd , 1969Blacks Law Dictionary, 7 th Ed, 1979Bouvier;s Law Dictionary 1914, 3v/J.A.Sibal Philippine Legal Encyclopedia 1986Encyclopedia of International Law, (Clive Parry er. Al. 3ees. 1986Strouds Judicial Dictionary of Words and Places, 4 th ed, 1974, 5vWords & Places, 45v Citators -They are research aids which provide notational information on the status of a particular case law or the current status of a statute. The purposes of a citator are togive history and the treatment of a decision or statute by means of symbols. Likewise,it can be used to find other decisions similar to or dependent upon the case under consideration.The term Shepardize is defines as the process of checking of the status of cases or statutes in the Shepards Citations.Ex. Dizons Philippine Citations (1937) A. Paras, Philippine citations (1965) Philippine Citations are found in v. 11 and 13 of the Philippine Digest and v . 7 of the Republic of the Philippine Digest and its supplement.Shepards Citations or Shepardizing .ExRule 45 and Rule 65 of the Rules of Court how the 2 rules of applied by theSupreme Court.With liberal spirit which pervades the Rules of Court and in the interest of justice theCourt may treat a petition for certiorari as having been filed under Rule 45, more if itwas filed within the reglementary period for filing a petition for review.(Nunez vs. GSIS Family Bank G.R. No. 163988, Nov. 17, 2005 Legal Research Page 4However, in Talidano vs. Falcon Maritime & Allied Services, et al., the SupremeCourt gave due course to a petition for certiorari under Rule 65, notwithstanding that the proper remedy is a petition for reviewThe proper remedy to assail decisions of Court of Appeals involving finalDisposition is under Rule 45. In this case, Petitioners filed their certiorari under Rules65, but due to the merit of the petition and in the interest of justice and considerationthe underlying circumstances, is petition is given due course.Statutes and decisions of the Supreme Court may be reversed from time to time,under Shardizing system, one has to research whether this concept is still

applicable or has been overruled or nullified, reversed by a new decision.Insofar as statutes citations are concerned, the notations cover the form and operationsof the law by the legislature and the courts.. I ndexes Indexes are alphabetical lists of important words and concepts covered in a book, aset of books or reseach source that assists the researcher in locating the primary or secondary sources:Ex.R.B Gorospe & R..L Echiveri, Indexes to SCRA Annotations v. 1- 327,1981-2001 (IJA,2002)Index to Official Gazette , 1945 - 1985 2 v. Supreme Court Library ServicesSCRA Quick Digest 5 v. Supplemental annullyA.L.R. Quick Indexes to 3 rd ,4 th 5 th DirectoriesLaw directories lead you to information about lawyers, law firms, law schools, lawlibraries courts or administrative agencies. They vary in approach and scope in givinginformation about lawyers, their addresses their laws firms and the field of practice;their contact addresses and contact numbers -Ex. Supreme Court of the Philippines , Law List 2003Mantindale Hubbelss Law Directory 4 v. annuallyDirectory of Asians Legal Scholars. P.V.Quisumbing, M.S. Feliciano & L.A. Manguiat Comp.s 1986 West Legal DirectoryAALS Directories of Law Teachers . Page 5LEGAL Research.. Tables Tables are supposed to be alphabetical listings of case names or statuteswith reference to the law with reference to the law reports or publications where casesor laws can be located Another type of table is that which gives the comparative or parallel citation to officials and unofficial case reports or compilation by statutes.Examples:National

Reporter Blue Book C. Sison, ed. The 1987, 1873 1935 Constitution; A Comparative Table Other Sources Opinion of Legal Experts, Ex. Manresa, Commentaries on the Spanish Civil Law. Other State and Foreign Sources.NOTE: These sources could be utilized if the Philippine Law is patterned after thesaid foreign law.Ex. American Constitution - Philippine Constitution PRELIMINARY STEPS IN YOUR LEGAL RESEARCH Before using the facilities of the library, critical fact-related steps must precedeyour research in law books. They are as follow:a.. Gather the facts from the problem raised by your clients situation and put on paper Five (5) Ws and One (1) H for convenience.. Who did it and to whom? Why was it doneWhen was it done What was done?How was it done? Where was it done?In Other Words:Get to the bone of the problem - What created the controversy?What is the subject matter? What is the Complaint about?What is the cause of action? What is the probable line of defense?What is the relief sought in the prayer? What is the possible counterclaim?Who are the parties? How are they related? After you have gathered all the facts, formulate the legal issue to be resolved.What caused the controversy or what gives rise to the problem? Determine the proper venue. Determine jurisdiction Page 6.Legal Research.. Analyze the Fact In fact analysis, one focuses on five elements common to the problems. The purposeof such analysis is the suggested points of departure in the search for legal materialsIn considering element . on should concentrate on watch words, legal concepts or descriptive words in the problem since these will lead .to relevant words in law bookssuch as digests, encyclopedia. Indexes or treatises.For guidance use the words - TARP T- thing or subject matter in the controversy without which the problem could have notarisen.A - Cause of Action or Ground of Defense. The cause of action is the claim asserted byone person against the other while the ground of defense is the position of one asagainst the other whose the claim is asserted. Identify the alleged infraction or

wrongsuffered by the plaintiff or those reason in law and in fact given by the defense whyhere cant be recovery. Determine if there is a breach of contract, negligence. R relief or object sought in the prayers. This element involves the purpose of bringingin the suit or presenting the claim . Determining the legal remedy in the light of the problem presented.P - Parties, Persons or places. This element includes the relationship of the parties andas to whether they are members of the same family, the same social group, their professions or what there commercial activities are. The purpose here is to determinewhether there special laws which govern their relationship. For instance if the belong tothe same family, we have to refer to the Family Code. If they are bankers, then wehave to look into banking laws or the corporation law itself. As to places, we have todetermine venue and jurisdiction. We have to consult our Rules of Court. Page 7 Legal ResearchIn gathering facts, you should also ascertain the following early source of information.. People - In any even that occurs, consider clients, witnesses or victims have spokenabout the case is pertinent information.. Tangible evidence - This might be a contract, a will, a lease or a certificate of titleOr the murder weapon in case of a criminal case.Books, periodicals and reports depending upon the nature of the case, look for policereports, medical records in the hospital, business reports or even scientificinformation, or even weather reports, these are important.. Expert witnesses - In technical areas, you need fingerprints expert , medico-legal, ballistics expert as to testimonies on guns and bullets. Psychiatrists as to the mentalcondition of a person.Identification of Issues -What are legal issues? They involve questions about how the law relates to the factsof the case. Sometimes the issue involves only the law,i.e. What are the elements of the crime of rape? Sometimes they contain facts ,i.e. Is the offended party a minor? Alsoin the crime of homicide and murder. One qualifying element may denominate theoffense from homicide to murder.Arranging the Legal issues in a logical order for research Issues and sub-issues are ordered logically according to certain rulesOr organizing principles You place the issues in the order that the facts occurred(chronologically)

in order that they would be presented in court, like, claim directtestimonies, for plaintiff - defense - direct testimonies, or rebuttal for either party.There are additional organizing principles, but all of them are premised on the theorythat you should address issues in the order that allows you to avoid redundanciesand to do the least doubling back your reasoning. Other issues like jurisdiction and Page 8. Legal Researchstatute of limitations have to be considered, otherwise this legal requirement may causethe dismissal of the case. Also, the case may need a required Certification to FileAction in accordance with P.D. 1508. You must also be fully aware andconcerned on the filing of the proper case, and the proper relief or remedy sought in the prayer of your complaint.These issues are questions that legal research process will attempt to answer. Itwill also increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your research.Classifying the problem As research short-cut, one must also classify the problem into any of thefollowing major subject fields..Constitutional lawCriminal LawStatutory lawAdministrative law International LawCase LawProcedural Law or Remedial LawOnce the subject filed is ascertained, use an authoritative or trustworthy source - aLegal treatise, law review article or even a digest or annotation.EVALUATING LEGAL RE SOURCES - when interpreting and evaluating legalresources , it is important to determine and understanding the purpose the resource weredesigned to serve . The identify of the author , the edition and the publisher and the potential persuasiveness of the legal source should be considered..Again, legal research is such an art as science. There are many approaches inyour research, but there is no single, best way to conduct it. It depends on your mode or style. As long as you could search and find the best materials, your pursuit is achieved. Page 9 Legal Research.APPROACHES IN SEARCHING FOR AUTHORITY -Generate vocabulary using your factual analysis. Perhaps a dictionary or thesauruscab generate a list of relevant words and phrases that appear in onr or more legalresearch sources.Law Finding Technique -To ascertain the appropriate law or case to the

problem, there are four law findingtechniques in using the library.. Descriptive Word Method /Index or Fact Method -This technique requires the use of subject o index to a book after the anlysis of thefacts in the problem using TARP rule.Table of Contents, Topic or Analysis Method After classifying the problem as to what subject filed it belongs, the researcher cango directly to particular book on the subject and scan the table the table of contents tofind where the topic appears. If you are using an encyclopedia or digest, there is a scopenote which indicates the coverage of the topic.Known Authority, Statute or Case Method -When the name of an applicable law or citation is known, proceed to the table of cases found in the digest, an annotated report or compilation of statutes or some other sources such as casebook or even textbook.Definition Method This method could only be utilized when a solution to a problem depends on themeaning of a legal or non-legal term or phrase. For this purpose one can consult theMulti-purpose dictionary, Words and Places published by West Publishing Company.Sometimes a statute or a case is popularly known as Manila Bay case or the NIPASLaw.The Philippine Annotated Laws carried a Table of Popular names for earlier laws. SOURCES TO OBTAIN BACKGROUND INFORMATION -There are sources such as code commentaries, treatises and legal periodical articleswherein one can elicit background information on a specific statute.The Spanish laws and royal decrees are contained I the Boletin Oficial and Gacetade Manila which can be found in the University of San Agustin Law Library in CebuCityAs for sources during the U.S. Military Rule in the Philippines, issuances issued byU.S. Military Governors, the researcher should consult the General Orders, 1900.This was followed by the U.S. Philippine Commission, Minutes of Public Sessions fro1901 to 1904; Executive Journal , February 1 19091913 which contained bills ,resolution and committee reports. Separate volumes of Executives Orders andProclamation were published from 1901 to 19134. Some of these materials are stillavailable at the National Library and photocopies are found at the U.P. Law Center.One c an trace the history of an article of the Civil Code or the R3vised Pena; Code by

examining the end of each provision. If the number at the end of the article in parenthesis , it means that one has search the cited article in the Spanish Civil Codeore Penal Code and read the appropriate commentaries.The rationale behind the new Civil Code provision can be elicited from the Reportof the Code Commission. For discussion on the Civil Code, consult Carmelo V. Sison,editor of the Civil Code Reader which was published by the U.P. Law Center in 2005 RESEARCH IN PHILIPPPINE STATUTE LAW CONSTITUTION -The Constitutional history of the Philippines has undergone several periods startingfrom the Spanish era to the Filipino concept of government during the revolutionary period and the structure of the Philippine government during the American Regime upto 1934. By virtue of the Tydings-McDuffie Law, a constitutional convention was called