Legal Practice Forms: Briefs, Motions, Pleadings Guide

1. Secondary Sources II Dana Neacsu, edn13@Columbia.edu

2. 1. Forms for Briefs, Motions & Pleadings, and More • Practical Secondary Sources= everything else that, although not an analysis of primary sources, enables you to practice law. • live or pre-recorded seminars; • magazine (Atlantic Magazine) articles;

3. 1-Bis. Forms for Briefs, Motions & Pleadings • Rather than originally drafting documents, one can consult sample forms. Form books may include explanations, checklists and annotations to primary and secondary sources. Some jurisdictions have prescribed official forms, so consult a jurisdiction's practice guides and forms before using general guides and forms. • Practice forms are designed for litigation procedures or other business before courts and administrative agencies.  • West's Federal Forms Contains forms arranged by "type of proceeding (civil and criminal) and the court to which they pertain." Covers United States Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, Civil and Criminal District Courts, bankruptcy and admiralty proceedings. Multi-volume set.  • Bender's Federal Practice Forms Contains forms for practice in Federal Courts "from initial filing of an action to appealing a case." Multi-volume set.  • Causes of Action Elements of the Action, defenses, proof, remedies and damages, practice checklists, sample complaints. Multi-volume set • Practical Law • For selected practice areas, it provides sample documents with legal, drafting and negotiating tips. Practice areas include labor and employment law, employee benefits, corporate and securities, finance, intellectual property and technology.  Many Practical Law forms are updated daily.  Practice Notes contains recent laws and cases pertinent to transactional drafting.  On Westlaw • Lexis Advance All Forms • How to Find Forms: Limit your search to forms and, if desired, a jurisdiction and practice area.  You can do so as follows: Click on Filters (in the search box at the top), click on Category and select Forms. 

4. 3. Discovery Forms • Bender's Forms of Discovery Several volumes of interrogatories for many different types of cases, and specific to which party is to answer the interrogatories (plaintiff or defendant). Also includes a multi-volume treatise with forms, for admissions, electronic discovery, depositions, production of documents, etc.Interrogatories - Lexis Advance; Treatise - Lexis Advance • Pattern Discovery Series • Contains discovery techniques and strategies for interrogatories, depositions, and requests for production of documents. Includes sample questions and checklist for the particular type of action. • Pattern Discovery Employment Discrimination - Westlaw • Pattern Discovery Premises Liability Westlaw • Pattern Discovery Products Liability Westlaw • Pattern Discovery Tort Actions Westlaw

5. 2. Jury Instructions • When writing a complaint, you may want to check the elements of a cause of action to make sure you have alleged all the elements. Some good sources for elements of causes of action are: • Federal Jury Practice and Instructions Kevin F. O'Malley, et al. (Westlaw) • Jury Instructions on Damages in Tort Actions Ronald W. Eades. (Lexis Advance) • Modern Federal Jury Instructions Leonard B. Sand, available on Lexis Advance as Modern Federal Jury Instructions Civil and Criminal. • Court websites (state & federal)

6. 3. Practical Guides (a) • How-to guides (e.g. Practice Notes, checklists, timelines, flowcharts) • Treatises (Legal Drafting in a Nutshell) • Bloomberg Law: Practical Guidance • Westlaw: Practical Law • Lexis: Lexis Practice Advisor • Open web

7. 4. Practical Guides(b)Bloomberg Law • Bloomberg DealMaker Documents & Clauses • DealMaker document database contains over 300,000 legal documents that were used by top practitioners in real transactions. The documents come from SEC filings.Limit your search by document type (selected from a menu), governing law, document name, law firm or attorney, transaction type or industry. • Bloomberg Transactional Intelligencer Center • Contains links to the following items in the Bloomberg Law Database: forms libraries (including Dealmaker Documents & Clauses), drafting guidance, checklists and timelines, treatises, & more. • Bloomberg Draft Analyzer Input your language and Draft Analyzer tells if you alternative language that you may want to add to or replace your text. The alternative language is gleaned from a consensus of SEC filing exhibits.

8. 6. Practical Guides (c)Analytics • 1. Lexis Verdict and Settlement Analyzer • (Lexis Advance Tutorial on Using the Jury Verdict & Settlement Analyzer (Video) • Lexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer (PDF) 2. Lexis Litigation Profile Suite (Ravel integrated) 3. Bloomberg Litigation Analytics 4. Westlaw Litigation Analytics 4. Jury Verdicts & Settlements

9. 5. Legal News • Legal newspapers, e.g., New York Law Journaland from Lexis. • Newsletters, e.g.,Law360; • listservs; • blogs, e.g, TaxProfBlog.

10. Reference Help • Remember, you will have access to the law library resources for the rest of your stay here and even after graduation (print & digital on-site access). • Academic Year Reference Hours (School in Session): 10-8 (Mon-Th); 10-5 (Fr); 12-6 (Weekends) • Academic Vacations: 10-5 (Mon-Fr) • Dana Neacsu, edn13@columbia.edu