HRM 44400: Employment Law

Objectives:

• To be able to retrieve a case in LexisNexis by citation or case name
• To search case law using section searches
• To find law review articles that point to key legal cases
• To browse the source list for Employment Law

The main database for this class is LexisNexis Academic.  You can find the database on the library's homepage under the Articles tab > Databases > then type the database name in the box or click on the letter "L".   It is also listed at the top of my Law Research guide  as well as appearing on this course guide (of course!).  

You can access it 24/7 by authenticating (sign-in with your Netpass user name and password).   The default in LexisNexis is the Easy search page.  In the blue menu at the left of the screen, choose "US Legal" to get started.

LexisNexis Academic

Method:

• Click on US Legal in the menu to the left
• Choose Federal & State Cases 

First method:

• Type one of your party's names in the first box and choose  "Party Names" from the the drop-down menu
• Type a second party name in the second box and choose "Party Names" from the drop-down menu
• Click the red Search button
• To limit by court, look at the menu to the left

Second method

• Type the entire case name in the first box and choose "Everywhere" from the drop-down menu
• Click the red Search button
• To limit by court, look at the menu to the left
   

Method:

• Click on US Legal in the menu to the left
• Choose Federal & State Cases
• Type in your citation in the first box (ex. 540 U.S. 581) and choose "Citation" from the drop-down
  NOTE: You'll find no results if the cite is not formatted properly.  To help with formatting style, check against LexisNexis's Legal Citation Format list.
• Since citations are exact, the case should be retrieved directly.

Once you become familiar with the citation formats, you can type the command search string directly in the search box. Search by Sections if you would like to retrieve numerous cases on your point of law.  An alternative research method would be to search law review articles (see below) and link to cases cited within the article.

format:        section name(what you want to search)
example:       cite(411 u.s.792)

CITE search

• Type the word cite and your case in parenthesis: cite(411 u.s. 792)
• Click the red search button.

LEGAL TOPICS search
The Legal Topics search builds the Syllabus/Headnotes and Core Terms search into the search form.

• Type "sexual harassment" in the search box
• Choose "legal topics" from the drop-down menu
• Click the red search button

OVERVIEW search
Overview provides a summary of the case.

• Type overview("sexual harassment" ) in the search box
• Try Limiting your search by choosing, for example, New York from the Jurisdiction drop-down, and/or choosing a data range from the Specify Date drop-down
  
• Click the red search button.

CORE-TERMS search:
Core Terms identify key points of a case by closely tracking the court's language

• Type core-terms("sexual harassment" ) in the search box
• Try Limiting your search by choosing, for example, New York from the Jurisdiction drop-down, and/or choosing a data range from the Specify Date drop-down
  
• Click the red search button.

SYLLABUS search
Searches the summary of facts, history of the case and point of law of the case (usually provided by the court).

• Type syllabus("sexual harassment") in the search box 
• Choose Edit Search from the top of the page
• Try limiting your search by typing: syllabus(atleast5(sexual harassment)) 
  This will search the syllabus section of the case for the phase "sexual harassment"; that phrase will appear at least 5 times in the case
  
• Click the red search button.

Common Case Law Sections (from the LexisNexis help screen)
The following list provides a description of the most commonly used case law document sections. Not all sections appear in every document.

• Cite: the citation of the case in an official reporter or parallel reference.
• Counsel: the name of individuals, law firms, or organizations representing a party of interest in the case.
• Court: the name of the court that heard the case.
• Disposition: the final decision of the court. You can search segment by date.
• History: the prior and subsequent history of the case.
• Judges: the names of the judges hearing the case.
• Name: the names of all the parties involved in a case.
• Number: the docket number(s) assigned to a case by the court.
• Opinion: the text of the opinion issued by the court. It includes the majority, dissent, and concurrance.
• Writtenby: the name of the judge(s) authoring the opinion, including the majority, concurrence, and dissent.

Besides searching court cases directly, another method is to find law review articles on your topic that link to key cases.  Law review articles are scholarly treatments of key legal questions.

Method:

• Click on US Legal in the menu to the left
• Click on Law Reviews
• Limit to: Labor Law to focus your search

ATLEAST
The atleast# command increases the relevancy of the results; the more times the word appears in the article, the greater the relevancy. You can choose any number from 1 to 255!

• The ATLEAST command will narrow down your search retrieval set. Example: atleast10("sexual harassment")
  For each article retrieved, the phrase  "sexual harassment" will appear at least ten times.  NOTE: You can choose "at least 5 occurances" from the drop-down menu.

SUMMARY
The summary provides a brief synopsis of the law review article.  Like an abstract you can read it to gain a quick understanding of the core thesis of the article

• Try limiting your search to the summary field.  example: summary("sexual harassment")
• To further focus your search, try limiting the date, for example, to the previous 5 years.

• Law - U.S. - General
  
• National Law Journal
• New York Law Journal

Use these general subject guides to find an array of resources (encyclopedias, statistics, guides, etc.):

• Law
• Public Policy

LexisNexis maintains a wiki of help screens to their product. It includes a guide to Human Resources Law.

Specific pages of interest include:

• Federal Statutes
• Landmark cases
• Legal Citation Formats  (how to type a case so it searches correctly-- very important!)
• Legal Reference
  
• Legal Topics Search
• State Codes
• Supreme Court Briefs
• US Cases
• US Law Reviews

Go to the  Sources tab in the left menu of LexisNexis.  Click Browse Sources: 1)  by Area of Law, 2) by Country (such as United States & then New York), Publication Type, or Source, and 3) by Area of Law. Click on the folder for Labor & Employment Law, check sources, and click the red OK - Continue button. Specific resources for  Labor &Employment Law in New York include:

• Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal
  
• National Black Law Journal
  
• New York City Human Rights Commission Decisions
• New York Employment Law Letter
  
• New York State Workers' Compensation Board
  
• The New York Times - Human Resources Stories
  
• The New York Times - Labor & Employment Stories
  
• The New York Times - Workers Compensation Law Stories
  
• NY Workers' Compensation Cases and Administrative Decisions
  
• NY Workers' Compensation Decisions, Combined
  
• NY Workers' Compensation Decisions, LRP
  
• Public Employee Reporters - Selected States

You can search for a specific source in the Sources tab by clicking on Find Sources.  You can also do this from the library's homepage by searching the Journal Titles tab atop the page.

The following links will take you to a list of titles for that particular subject in the library's catalog. It is just a sample of subjects.

• Affirmative action programs United States
• Civil service New York (State)
• Collective labor agreements
• Discrimination in employment United States
• Diversity in the workplace United States
• Glass ceiling (Employment discrimination)
• Employee rights United States
• Industrial relations United States
• Labor laws and legislation United States
• Labor policy United States
• Personnel management United States
• Sex discrimination in employment
• Sexual harassment of women United States
• Unfair labor practices United States
• Women executives Promotions
• Working poor Abuse of United States

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I pulled selected sections of the U.S. Code from Chapter 1. 1.01(a) of the following book:

1. Mack A Player, Federal Law of Employment Discrimination in a Nutshell ( 6th ed ed. 2009).  General Stacks KF3464 .P583 2009

29 U.S.C. - LABOR

• CHAPTER 8 - FAIR LABOR STANDARDS (Equal pay, etc.)
  
• CHAPTER 14 - AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT
• CHAPTER 16 -- SUBCHAPTER V - RIGHTS AND ADVOCACY  (Disability)
• CHAPTER 28 - FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE

42 U.S.C. VI - EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES 

• CHAPTER 21 - CIVIL RIGHTS
  Sec. 2000e-2 - Unlawful employment practices.
• CHAPTER 126 - EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES

Additional sections:

Title 8 - ALIENS AND NATIONALITY, CHAPTER 12 - IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY; SUBCHAPTER II - IMMIGRATION; Part VIII - General Penalty Provisions; Sec. 1324a - Unlawful employment of aliens

Title 38 - VETERANS’ BENEFITS; PART III - READJUSTMENT AND RELATED BENEFITS; CHAPTER 43 - EMPLOYMENT AND REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS OF MEMBERS OF THE UNIFORMED SERVICES; Sec. 4311 - Discrimination against persons who serve in the uniformed services and acts of reprisal prohibited

If you are interested in labor-management relations, the Congressional Research Service published the Federal Labor Relations Statutes: An Overiew (May 11, 2012) (pdf) (originally found on Secrecy News from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, v. 2012 no. 46, May 15, 2012).

Free versions:

• Laws of New York:  Labor  (Browsable, from NY State)
• New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) (Browsable for West / NY State)

LexisNexis

• New York Consolidated Laws Service   (Search, cannot browse)
• New York Codes, Rules and Regulations and New York Register   (Search, Can not browse).

Also visit the New York State Department of Labor.  See their Legal page.

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