Primary Legal Sources consist of Federal and State statutes, regulations and court opinions. For the most part you should rely on Primary Legal Sources when writing a legal memo or trying to answer an important legal question. Secondary sources consist of interpretations or abridged versions of Primary Sources. Common Secondary Legal Sources are dictionaries, encyclopedias, treatises, law review articles and Westlaw and LexisNexis case notes. Secondary Legal Sources serve two purposes, they can assist you in locating primary sources, they might be relied upon if there is no primary source to consult. An example of this would be a novel legal question which cannot be answered by current law or court opinion. In most situations however you should only rely upon Primary Sources.
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