- An open memo discusses preliminary research on an issue, presents recommendations, and suggests additional research and inquiry that a senior attorney may wish to pursue to form his or her own conclusions and determine a specific course of action.
Working on an open memo is an excellent way to hone your logical writing skills. A few points to keep in mind:*
- Clearly and concisely state the facts in short, simple sentences.
- Identify and define the legal issue(s) in the case.
- Research, select, and read the cases and statutory authority relevant to the facts and the legal issues.
- Apply the law to the facts.
- Organize your analysis of the facts and the law.
* From How to Write: A Memorandum from a Curmudgeon, by Mark Hermann
Before you write the memo, you can use the LexisNexis® services to uncover and refine issues, identify the relevant Black Letter law, and validate your findings.
Get started with Search by Topic or Headnote:
With just one search, Search by Topic or Headnote helps you access on-point results for your topic and ensures that you are searching across only relevant sources. Here’s how:
2. Click the Search by Topic or Headnote secondary tab.
3. Select a search method:
a. Recently Used Legal Topics (select from the pull-down menu) or
b. Look for a Legal Topic
i. Enter a search in the Option 1: Find a Legal Topic field (e.g., fair use defense), or
ii. Select an area of law from the Option 2: Explore Legal Topics list and drill down to the specific information you need.
4. Once you have identified a specific topic, you will have the option of searching by topic or by LexisNexis® headnote. LexisNexis headnotes identify the major points of law found in an opinion, expressed in the actual language of the court. Enter your search in the appropriate fields to either:
a. Search Across Sources (search for your topic across cases, statutes, analysis, and more) or
b. Search by Headnote (retrieve all headnotes and additional cases on your topic).
Analyze your results quickly
Reduce the time it takes to sort through case-law documents by relying on LexisNexis® case summaries. Each concise synopsis provides a snapshot of a case-law decision.
Expand your research with More Like This
Now that you’ve found several relevant cases and identified the key legal issues, the “More Like” features provide three great ways to expand your research:
More Like This finds cases with similar citation patterns or core terms.
More Like Selected Text finds cases with similar language.
More Like This Headnote finds cases containing the same headnote.
Narrow your results with the FOCUS™ feature
Use the FOCUS feature to narrow your search results without changing your original search request.
1. Review your search results.
2. Determine additional terms you would like to find in the documents.
3. Enter these terms as a Terms and Connectors search request in the FOCUS Terms open field of the FOCUS bar at the top of the page.
4. Indicate that you want to search within Original Results, Current Results, or Selected Documents.
5. Click Go.
Check Statutes
If you’re starting with a citation, use the Get by Citation feature to retrieve a statute. Simply click the Get a Document tab, click by Citation, enter the citation in the open field, and click Get. Remember to use the Citation Formats link to verify the correct format for your statutory citation.
If you don’t have a citation, take advantage of the expandable/collapsible Table of Contents features in all statutory sources for easy and efficient searching and navigation through all or part of any code.
a. Enter search words to quickly find them in the text or in the Table of Contents.
b. Select the scope of your search: either the full text or the Table of Contents.
c. Expand or collapse a single node of the Table of Contents levels to easily browse the hierarchy.
d. Link directly to a document or a section in the hierarchy.
Interpret statutory language with the Book Browse feature
If the context of a particular statute is not clear, use the Book Browse feature to review the preceding and subsequent code sections to better understand how your statute fits into the bigger picture.
Once you have retrieved a statute, link to Book Browse at the top of the page. Use the Prev and Next arrows to view adjacent sections—like flipping through the pages of a code book.
When you’re finished browsing the statutory content, click the Return to Search Results link to return to the original statute you were viewing before you started browsing.
Shepardize® statutes for “good law” verification
Validate your research more quickly and completely with the premier Shepard’s® Citations Service, available exclusively from LexisNexis®. Shepard’s helps you easily confirm that your case-law citation references are strong, accurate, and on point. It can also help you identify cited cases that discuss specific issues of interest. You’ll find:
• Parallel citations to a case
• Citations to a case
• Editorial analysis of citing cases
• Prior and subsequent case history
• Citations from law reviews, bar journals, legal treatises, and court documents
To use Shepard’s
1. Click the Shepard’s tab.
2. Enter the citation. Unsure of the citation format to enter? Click the Citation Formats link.
3. Click to select Shepard’s for Validation or Shepard’s for Research.
4. Click Check.
Viewing your results
Take advantage of the four LexisNexis display options to help you sort through your search results even more quickly.
Cite
View an ordered listing of the bibliographical information of all search results—grouped 10, 25, or 50 documents at a time, as you specify.
Efficiently evaluate the relevancy of results by adding the Overview and Core Terms to your Cite display. To select these viewing options, click Preferences in the upper-right corner of the screen, select the General tab, and click to place checkmarks in the boxes for Show Cite List Overviews and Show Core Terms under the Case Law Display section.
To save time, click Show Hits (top center of page) to see a snapshot of how your search terms appear in each document without leaving the Cite list view.
KWIC™ (Key Words In Context)
View your search terms surrounded by the 25 searchable words on either side of your key terms to gain a better understanding of the context in which they are being referenced.
To customize the number of words in your context window:
1. Click KWIC in the upper-left corner of the screen to ensure you’re viewing the document in KWIC.
2. Click KWIC +25 in the upper-left corner.
3. Enter the desired number between 1 and 999.
Your choice remains in effect for the duration of the research session.
Custom
View only those segments of the document you want to see.
1. Click Custom in the upper-left corner.
2. Click the checkboxes to deselect the segments that you do not want to view.
3. Click OK.
If you prefer not to view lengthy annotations, select Unanno for custom viewing your statutes. To review only dissenting opinions to identify potential weaknesses for any rule of law, select Dissent for custom viewing your case law.
Full
View the full text of a document.