System Design of a Legal Research Assistant

Know the Vocabulary

This lesson uses the terms below many times. Read them once now, and come back here when a later section needs one.

• Case law: The body of past court decisions. Courts follow earlier decisions on the same legal question, so lawyers search them constantly.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature, such as a state's labor code.
• Jurisdiction: The place whose law applies to a question, such as one state or the federal courts. The same question can have different answers in two jurisdictions.