The Handy Law Answer Book

David L Hudson

Description

Navigate the law, the history, the theories, the cases, and the system! A legal primer to the practice and history of law in the United States.

Every day we encounter the rules of law—from the time we decide to get married, or perhaps divorced, to making a purchase with our credit cards or dealing with bankruptcy. Let The Handy Law Answer Book help you navigate the system.

You’ll learn useful advice on how to find a lawyer; what happens when you file a lawsuit or are sued by someone else; what your rights in the workplace are; and what you can expect when you have your day in court. Plus, how to read those legal citations as well as some fascinating—and quirky—legal cases.

Combining practical legal tips with an exhaustive overview of the law in the United States, you’ll learn about the history of the U.S. legal system and about the personalities who shaped it. You’ll get an introduction to various laws, important cases, court opinions, and how they all might affect you. You’ll find answers to more than 800 questions, including …

Where did the word tort come from?

How are state court judges selected?

Where did the first U.S. Supreme Court meet?

How did our system of law evolve?

How does one best navigate that system?

How are state court judges selected?

How does the law define “marriage”?

What should you do if facing too much debt?

What is a “wobbler”?

With a wide range of information suitable for everyone, this is an ideal source for anyone looking to get a better understanding of the law. Fully illustrated, The Handy Law Answer Book also includes a helpful glossary of legal terms, a list of useful resources, an explanation of legal citations, the full text of the U.S. Constitution, and an index.

Sujets

• Practical Guides
• Droit et juridique
• Law
• Bill of Rights

Informations

• Publié par: Visible Ink Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781578593378
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

About the Author
David L. Hudson Jr. is the author or co-author of over two dozen books, including The Handy Supreme Court Answer Book (Visible Ink Press, 2007), The Rehnquist Court: Understanding Its Impact and Legacy (Praeger, 2006), and (as coeditor with John Vile and David Schultz) The Encyclopedia of the First Amendment (CQ Press, 2008). He works as First Amendment Scholar for the First Amendment Center and teaches classes at Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville School of Law, and Middle Tennessee State University. Hudson earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School. He resides in the Middle Tennessee area with his wife, Carla, and two dogs, Gloria and Gucci.

Copyright © 2010 by Visible Ink Press®
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Managing Editor: Kevin S. Hile Art Director: Mary Claire Krzewinski Typesetting: Marco Di Vita Proofreader: Sharon Malinowski ISBN 978-1-57859-217-3
Cover images: iStock.com.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Hudson, David L., 1969–    The handy law answer book / by David L. Hudson Jr. — 1st ed.       p. cm. — (Handy answer book series)    Includes bibliographical references and index.    ISBN 978-1-57859-217-3    1. Law—United States—Outlines, syllabi, etc. I. Title.    KF386.H82 2010    349.73—dc22
2010000201
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
The U.S. Constitution
History of the U.S. Constitution
Key Concepts and Structure of the Constitution
Legislative Branch
Executive Branch
Judicial Branch
State Constitutions
THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND 14TH AMENDMENT
First Amendment
Second Amendment
Third and Fourth Amendments
Fifth Amendment
Sixth Amendment
Seventh Amendment
Eighth Amendment
Ninth and Tenth Amendments
Fourteenth Amendment
THE COURT SYSTEM
The Supreme Court Term
Judiciary Act of 1789
State Courts
LAWYERS AND LAWSUITS
Becoming a Lawyer
Finding a Lawyer
Lawsuits
CRIMINAL PROCEDURES
The Criminal Process
Trial Process
Sentencing
Appeals
Juvenile Defendants
CREDIT AND BANKRUPTCY LAW
Loans
Debt Collectors and the Law
Bankruptcy
Chapter 13
EMPLOYMENT LAW
At-Will Employment
Employment Discrimination
Title VII
Religious Discrimination
Retaliation
Age Discrimination
Disability Discrimination
Employee Compensation
Workers Compensation Law
Other Employment Law Considerations
FAMILY LAW
Marriage
Pre-Marital Agreements
Divorce
Alimony
Child Custody
Child Support
Paternity
Adoption
PERSONAL INJURY LAW
Negligence
Professional Negligence
Other Torts
Product Liability
A PPENDIX A: E XPLANATION OF C ASE AND S TATUTE C ITATIONS
A PPENDIX B: T HE C ONSTITUTION OF THE U NITED S TATES OF A MERICA
A PPENDIX C: ONLINE RESOURCES
G LOSSARY
I NDEX
To three great lawyers: Steve Waldron, Terry Fann, and “King” Richard Sebastian.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Visible Ink Press publisher, Roger Jänecke, for his vision and for granting me another writing opportunity with the “Handy” series. I enjoyed writing the Handy Law Answer Book as much as my previous work in the series, The Handy Supreme Court Answer Book. I would also like to thank Managing Editor Kevin Hile for his superior editing abilities. Thanks to all of my students at Middle Tennessee State University, Nashville School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School, who enrich my experience with teaching various legal subjects on a daily basis. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my wife, Carla, for their constant love, support, and encouragement.
Introduction
Law in the United States is ubiquitous and unique. Pick up a newspaper or turn on the television and you will confront the law or the legal system. Recently, the leading stories in the news media involved the possibility of new federal healthcare legislation, a pending ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on campaign finance, the implementation of behavioral profiles for would-be terrorists, and a gruesome murder. Obviously, all of these—pending legislation, a future court ruling, profiling possible terrorists, or criminals and a crime—directly trigger the legal system.
The American legal system is unique for many reasons, most notably its Constitution—the grand experiment created in secret at those fabled meetings during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The founding fathers—a sizeable number of whom were lawyers—created a legal system that is the envy of the world. It separated power between three branches of government, divided authority between a central, federal government and various state governments, and even provided for measures of individual freedom, particularly after the addition of the first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights.
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who is considered one of the country’s great jurists, once wrote: “The rational study of law is still to a large extent the study of history.” On another occasion, he wrote: “The law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics.”
For this reason, The Handy Law Answer Book begins with an examination of the history and development of the Constitution—the fundamental blueprint of the legal system—and a discussion of constitutional law. The states passed the U.S. Constitution only upon the promise that Congress would pass certain provisions protecting individuals from the powers of the new central government. These first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are what James Madison called “the great rights of mankind”—the Bill of Rights. The next chapter of this book examines the various provisions of the Bill of Rights.
Chapter Three, The Court System, explains the structure of the judicial branch in both the federal and state systems. It examines not only the highest court—the so-called “Court of Last Resort”—but also various state courts. In Chapter Four, readers will learn more about lawsuits and lawyers, including how a lawsuit starts, how one becomes a lawyer, and how to choose a lawyer.
Many people are afraid of the legal system, baffled by its jargon, mystified by its complexity, or upset at its outcomes. But, the law often serves as the galvanizing force for social change. As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson once wrote: “Any legal doctrine which fails to enlist the support of well-regarded lawyers will have no real sway in this country.”
The text then examines various substantive areas of law—not all areas of law, but those most commonly encountered by people in their everyday lives. These include criminal law, credit and bankruptcy, employment law, family law, and personal injury law. People often face criminal charges, encounter financial difficulty, suffer a job loss, endure a painful divorce, embark on a beautiful marriage, or suffer an injury in everyday life. These chapters will explain the legalities involved in all of these areas.
In the criminal field, readers will learn how a criminal case moves from arrest to arraignment to trial. You will learn about felonies and misdemeanors, bail, juvenile justice, and selecting juries. Regarding credit and bankruptcy, you will learn about credit records, credit cards, Chapters 7 and 13 bankruptcies, and the relatively new Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. In employment law, you will read about employment contracts, the employment-at-will doctrine, just-cause clauses, discrimination lawsuits, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Finally, in tort law, you will discover various causes of action, the elements of a slip-and-fall case, the different type of damages in lawsuits, and the question of tort reform.
Recall the uniqueness of the American legal system. One of the more fascinating aspects of this system is its federalism—the allocation of power between the federal and state governments. Under our legal system, states are granted an impressive degree of discretion to develop their own laws and principles as long as they comport with the fundamental baselines of the U.S. Constitution. In other words, the workers compensation system in Tennessee can differ from the workers compensation system in Louisiana, as long as neither violates the U.S. Constitution. Similarly, personal injury law in California differs from personal injury law in Massachusetts. Different states have different grounds for divorce and different requirements for marriage.
The Handy Law Answer Book follows the format of the “Handy” series with its easily accessible question-and-answer format that provides an overview, a history, leading principles, seminal court rulings, and practical information.
In addition, the book features an array of sidebars titled “LegalSpeak” that seek to provide the actual language of laws and court rulings or to expl