PLA 3108 - Legal Research

NOTE: The volumes for the various series of West's Federal Practice Digest are no longer available in the UCF Libraries.

Descriptive Word Index -- "Generally, descriptive words will group themselves around the five elements common to every case:

1. The Parties involved;
2. The Places where the facts arose, and the Objects or Things involved;
3. The Acts or Omissions which form the Basis of Action or Issue;
4. The Defense to the action or issue; and
5. The Relief sought.

A search, in the DESCRIPTIVE-WORD INDEX, of words descriptive of these elements will produce the decisions dealing with similar fact situations and legal principles."

Table of Cases "lists alphabetically the title of each case, by both Plaintiff's and Defendant's names, the volume and page of the reports in which each is published, the subsequent case history, and the digest Topic and Key Number under which each point of law is digested."

Words & Phrases "lists alphabetically words or phrases that have been judicially defined in the cases indexed by the Digest, and sets out the headnotes, titles and citations of the case in which definitions appear."