There are about one and one-half million reported cases decided by the courts of this country to which are being added about thirty thousand cases each year. This mass of case-law makes at present approximately nine thousand volumes which cost about twenty-five thousand dollars and require about fourteen hundred fifty feet of shelf space to house. Very few lawyers can afford to make such an investment. Investigation shows that a very large part of the decided cases in all jurisdictions are local in character, such as decisions on questions of local practice and procedure, or on the construction of local statutes, or cases which add little to jurisprudence because they merely reiterate thoroughly settled propositions of law, or like the numerous criminal cases which are decided almost entirely on the facts. You will get the decisions of your jurisdiction on local practice and procedure matters, and those construing your statutes, etc., in your state reports. The majority of similar decisions of other jurisdictions will be of little interest or service to you. Many of the leading decisions of a general nature of all courts valuable to the Bar at large can be secured in the Annotated Reports System. The Annotated Reports System Includes the American Decisions, American Reports, Lawyers Reports, Annotated, and the American Law Reports, Annotated, which contain important American cases from 1760 to date without duplication and without lapses in point of period covered. This is the only system of American reports which contains a line of decisions from the earliest colonial times to the present. Chronologically arranged as to period covered the various units are as follows: American Decisions American Reports Lawyers Reports, Annotated ...... American Law Reports, Annotated (1760 to 1869) (1870 to 1887) (1888 to 1918) (1919 to date) In addition to containing important decisions for the periods covered, the units of the Annotated Reports System also contain thousands of exhaustive annotations which are in effect complete impartial briefs on the questions covered. This is the great feature of the Annotated Reports System. These briefs will not only give you the law of your own jurisdiction on a particular question if your court has passed on it, but also what is more important to you, the law as decided by all of the courts on those questions. Each of the above named units of the Annotated Reports System is complete in itself, is separately digested and can be purchased separately. In adding these reports to your library, if you cannot afford to purchase all of them at one time it is advisable to start with the latest unit in point of time, the American Law Reports Annotated and add the others as you are financially able. Other Annotated Reports. Some of the other important annotated reports paralleling those mentioned above and the period covered by each are: American State Reports (1887 to 1911) American and English Annotated Cases ... (1906 to 1912) United States Supreme Court Reports. (1912 to 1918) You will want the reports of the Supreme Court of the United States. Daniel Webster once said: "No gentleman can think he has a complete library while he has not the judgments of the highest judicial tribunal in the country." The courts of last resort in a state, as a general rule, follow the United States Supreme Court, unless they find something to the contrary in their own stand of justice, and they will listen with great respect to what the Supreme Court of the United States has said. While the popular conception of the United States Supreme Court is that it deals with Federal matters only, in point of fact it is the most versatile court in the country. As the Federal courts have jurisdiction of many cases between citizens of different States in which no Federal question is involved the United States Supreme Court in reviewing these cases has to decide a very great variety of questions of law arising in the general practice of all lawyers in every jurisdiction, and its position and authority make its opinions while not stare decisis, of very great importance and they are always respectfully considered. The tendency for the last half century to broaden the scope and authority of the Federal government has resulted in throwing into the United States Supreme Court, the final authority, a great deal of the most important and far-reaching commercial and corporate litigation. The Lawyers' Edition of the United States Supreme Court Reports is the most economical, both in money and shelf-room, besides it has the very great advantage of containing briefs of counsel with the cases, editorial notes and also Rose's Notes bound in with the decisions. United States Statutes. You will probably need the Federal statutes. It is advisable to secure an annotated statute. Either the Federal Statutes Annotated or the U. S. Compiled Statutes Annotated will serve your purpose. It is also possible to secure the Federal statutes without annotations for a nominal sum. English Reports. In addition to the American books outlined above you will want something to give you the important English cases which are of service to the American lawyer. The English Ruling Cases which contain such decisions from early times to 1900 and the British Ruling Cases from 1901 to date will serve this purpose. In addition to the cases these two sets both contain copious annotations which show the English law as it is today and how it has been cited and applied by the American courts. The two sets named above are also units of the Annotated Reports System. Conclusion. Get a library as soon as you can and get well acquainted with it so that you can do good work. There is an old saying among lawyers, "Beware of the man with one book." It does not mean that only one book is advisable, but have a care for the lawyer who knows his law books. The late Justice Harlan of the United States Supreme Court delivering an address to the graduating class of one of the large Chicago law schools said: "The young lawyer was justified in going into debt for one thing, and that was law books, as without them it was impossible for him to make a success." Brief making is the attempt to put to use in support of one's claims in a judicial contest all of the knowledge of substantive and adjective law, of legal bibliography proper, of legal research and its mechanical processes, of analysis, of logic, and finally of constructive argument, which the lawyer possesses pertinent to the case in hand. The brief is the final result of the application of all the legal faculties. Any abstract or memorandum which is intended to guide a lawyer's work when he gets into court, or any preparatory investigation for that matter, may properly be called a brief, because it is a brief statement of points of authority. In England and the United States the word "brief" has a special meaning, and a different meaning in the two countries. In England the brief is prepared by the solicitor or attorney for the use of the barrister, and it is intended to contain only such matter as will indicate to the barrister the essential features of the case in which he has been retained and which he is to try. Hence, the English brief contains an abstract of the pleadings and an abstract of the expected evidence, together with the names of the witnesses who are to be called, and frequently a description of their peculiarities, as, for example, unruliness, antagonism or prejudice in our favor, or anything that would give the barrister a line on the particular individual to be examined by him. Thus, the English brief tells what the case is, but does not argue it. It deals with facts rather than law. In the United States the trial brief partakes somewhat of the nature of the English brief, but it goes further and contains both a memorandum of the facts and the law. Our brief on appeal is entirely unlike either the English brief or the American trial brief. The appeal brief with us is a skeleton of the argument, and generally deals with law rather than facts. Very often, however, some discussion of the facts is necessary in the application of the law and occasionally it happens that the sole question involved is a question of fact, but usually the appeal brief is an argument on the law. As the old divisions of the profession, solicitor and barrister, do not exist in this country, the trial brief and the appeal brief are usually prepared by the lawyer who is to try or argue the case, or by some representative of his. The English brief is for the guidance of the counsel only, but the American trial brief is often handed to the court before or after the argument, although that is not required by any general rule or court. Though not generally required, courts very often call on counsel during the trial, or at the close of the trial, for a memorandum of authorities, or a trial brief, and if the court calls upon counsel for such a memorandum it is convenient to have it in the form of a trial brief. Most Appellate courts in the United States, if not all, require that the Appeal brief be placed in the hands of the court previous to the argument and also to be exchanged with opposing counsel, and it is prepared with this use in view. The courts also prescribe the size of type, printed page, breadth of margin for notes, quality of paper, and other mechanical details. We shall consider the trial brief and the appeal brief separately, because both in their form and contents they are quite different. THE TRIAL BRIEF. The term "trial brief" indicates a brief used in the trial of a case before a jury, but we give that name to all briefs which are not used in the appellate courts, that is, that term applies to all briefs for use in the lower or trial courts, whether in a trial before a jury, or a hearing in equity, or a hearing upon a demurrer, or motion, or what not. Any memorandum, therefore, for use in the lower court is generally called a trial brief. There are no set rules as to the form of trial briefs, but the brief maker if prudent will make them attractively legible. The importance of making briefs of the facts of the cases to be tried in the lower or nisi prius courts, and of the law which may be involved was formerly underestimated by the majority of American lawyers. The practice of preparing trial briefs is growing much more common by those lawyers who carefully prepare their cases. A slight experience will demonstrate to any lawyer the wisdom of having such a memorandum before him as a guide in the various steps of the trial, or in the frequent oral arguments that arise during the progress of every trial. Let us consider what the briefs for the trial of an action at law before a jury should contain, and later we will consider other socalled trial briefs. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the great advantage of making a brief of the facts and the testimony of a case which is to be |