With the writing component of your seminar in mind, we have compiled a listing of useful resources for the topic of Professional Negligence. If you have any questions, please request a student consult with a librarian using the form linked on the left hand side of this guide.
Legal newsletters have articles on new litigation, trial court orders, and administrative caselaw. They include cases on negligence of attorneys and financial and healthcare professionals, and sometimes cases on negligence of contractors or design professionals. They are a good source to browse for potential paper topics and to keep track of developments related to your paper topic.
Business news articles may also cover business and professional torts cases. Find business news in:
The study aids that get you through your exams are also good starting points for background information in a subject area. All of these can be checked out from reserves at the library service desk. See the reserves list here. Among the study aids you might review on Professional Negligence are:
Treatises on professional negligence, or with relevant chapters, include:
Use Emory Library Search (the catalog). Relevant titles may be specific to negligence or malpractice, or may be chapters in treatises on the subject area (securities, construction law), or more generally within treatises on damages or torts. If you're browsing the 4th floor shelves, Negligence is at KF 1280-1290, and Legal Profession and Professional Responsibility is at KF 297-397.
Practice Centers from the major database services combine cases, statutes, regulations, secondary sources, and legal news in a subject area.
Westlaw: Use the Practice Areas and Practitioner Insights for Construction Law, Securities Enforcement and Litigation, or Health Law.
Lexis: Use the Practice Area for Torts ,Securities Law, Healthcare Law, or Construction Law. Or use Browse Topics to find cases: Healthcare Law can be narrowed to Healthcare Litigation cases; Securities Law to Protection From Broker-Dealer Failure; and Torts has subsections for Business Torts, Malpractice & Professional Liability, and Negligence.
Bloomberg Law: Practice Centers include Banking & Finance, Health, and Securities. Practice Centers include practical guidance, BNA portfolios, analytics, and dockets.
Search in Causes of Action, AmJur Trials, and AmJur Proof of Facts on Westlaw to find articles and practical guidance by type of case, with litigation checklists and practice suggestions, plus case citations.
Search Practical Law on Westlaw for articles and sample documents on practice areas, including litigation and finance.
Law.com . ALM's legal news publications, including the Daily Report (originally Fulton County Daily Report), National Law Journal, Corporate Counsel, and New York Law Journal, have news on major verdicts and settlements. Emory Law users may create an account by clicking here.
ALM publications are also on Lexis, including ALM verdicts by state.
Lexis has other publications and databases with jury verdicts and settlements.
Westlaw has a section of Jury Verdicts & Settlements by circuit, state, and topic, including Construction Law, Finance & Banking, Health Law, and Securities.
Westlaw also has a Medical Litigator section that includes medical reference books, medical board decisions and licenses, and Stein on Personal Injury Damages.
The Business Torts Reporter, a newsletter of new cases in areas of business torts, is available on Ebsco Business Source Complete and on Westlaw.
Find dockets for pending cases (mostly federal) on Bloomberg Law. You can find federal dockets and court documents mentioned in news or newsletter articles, or search dockets by docket number, party name, or keyword (including cause of action). For Federal District Courts, you can search by nature of suit. Among the available causes of action to search are securities fraud, securities violation, tort action, and medical malpractice.
Westlaw has arbitration titles in secondary sources, including the treatise Alternative Dispute Resolution, which has chapters by areas of practice (construction, securities, healthcare). Other titles include Georgia Alternative Dispute Resolution, Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Guide, and Negotiating & Settling Tort Cases.
To find print and electronic titles in the Emory catalog, search by subject for "dispute resolution (law)."
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has information on securities dispute resolution, including SEC rulemaking and regulatory notices.
The American Arbitration Association has information on arbitration, including rules, forms, and sample clauses.
The ABA's Section of Litigation also has a page of ADR resources. Hein Online has a collection of ABA journals and periodicals.
Westlaw 50 State Statutory Surveys: Medical Malpractice, Tort Reform.
Lexis 50 State Surveys, Legislation & Regulations: Healthcare Litigation, Torts. One 50-state survey is on medical malpractice actions.
Hein Online Resources: Subject Compilations of State Laws, Session Laws Library
BNA Law Reports on Bloomberg Law include State Health Care Legislative Alert and State Health Care Regulatory Alert.
National Conference of State Legislatures: Reports and tables on state legislation, both pending and enacted. Medical malpractice is included in the Health Reform section, financial crimes under Financial Service & Commerce. Some resources on the site are only available to NCSL members.
Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online: Links to state legal websites, including state legislatures, session laws, and codes.
Several CRS (Congressional Research Service) Reports are available on Dodd-Frank standards and on medical malpractice reform. Search in Proquest Congressional , Hein Online, or EveryCRSReport.com.
Recent books on the subject in the law library include Tort Reform, Plaintiffs' Lawyers, and Access to Justice (KFT1395 .D36 2015) and Understanding Law for Physicians, Healthcare Professionals, and Scientists: A Primer on the Operations of the Law and the Legal System (K3601 .S53 2018).
Search the catalog for subject headings like "health care reform" and "medical policy" to find books, ebooks, government documents, and other documents. Recent titles include:
Westlaw’s Practitioner Insights for Health includes statutes, regulations, secondary sources, and proposed and enacted health law legislation, federal and state.
BNA's Health Law Resource Center includes tabs for Hospital & Provider Regulation and Medicare & Medicaid.
There are also CRS Reports on federal health law and policy issues. See Proquest Congressional and CRSReports.com.
Use subject headings like "financial services industry" and "consumer protection" in Emory Library Search to find books, ebooks, government documents, and other documents.
Westlaw's Practitioner Insights for Securities Enforcement & Litigation includes legal news, secondary sources, and materials on Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform.
Bloomberg BNA's Securities Regulation & Law Report (on Bloomberg Law and on Bloomberg BNA) includes articles under the topic headings Financial System Reform, Federal Securities Legislation, and Investment Professional Registration.
Lexis' Securities Practice Center page has Securities news, Law360 news, and case searching by topic under "Investment Advisers" for adviser, broker & dealer liability; fiduciary responsibilities; and private right of action.
Federal Bill Tracking:
Proquest Congressional: The Bill Profile for bills in the current Congress include latest action and a tracking graph, with all actions, text, committees, and CRS summary in the full-text bill profile.
Westlaw: Bill tracking for the current Congress includes status and summary, with links to documents. You can set up alerts to new activity.
Lexis: Bill Tracking Report - Current Congress. Use filters for search terms and topics. Progress report graphic with a detailed legislative outlook report. Includes a synopsis, status, actions with links, and sponsors.
Bloomberg Law: Legislative Resources includes a Congressional bill search, latest bills, and Congressional news from wire services and BNA Law Reports. Tracker pages by subject area include federal and state legislative and regulatory developments.
Congress.gov: Free source with congressional bills to search by number, type of legislation, policy area, words and phrases, status, committee, or sponsor. Includes a summary, text, actions, related bills, sponsors, committees, and text. "More on this bill" includes the constitutional authority statement and CBO cost estimate. Congress.gov also has links to current legislative activities: hearings, calendars, roll call votes, and the Congressional Record.
Senate.gov: Find floor proceedings, calendars, hearings, roll call votes, and a list of active legislation by subject.
House.gov: Find floor proceedings, votes, bills, reports, and hearings.
Govtrack.us: Track individual bills or legislation by issue area. Entries for bills include a summaries (CRS and more partisan ones), sponsors, committees, votes, related bills, and prognosis for passage.
CQ Weekly: Articles on current bills, with lists of floor votes by topic and date.
State bill tracking:
Westlaw: Bill Tracking databases by State.
Lexis: Bill Tracking Reports by State.
Bloomberg Law Tracker pages by subject area include federal and state legislative and regulatory developments.
National Conference of State Legislatures: information on pending and recent state legislation and trends.
Proposed and Final Rules of Federal agencies are published in the Federal Register.
Each daily issue includes rules, proposed rules, and notices, arranged by agency.
A proposed rule will include the agency, the CFR Part affected, the agency docket number, an RIN (regulation ID number), a title, a summary and a longer synopsis, dates and addresses for public comments, and the text of the proposed rule. The text of the proposed rule will include an authority citation (US Code sections). Final rules will include most of the same information: agency, CFR Parts affected, agency docket number and RIN number, a title, summary, dates, contact information, USC authority citation, and text of the rule.
You can find pending and final rules in your subject area by searching the Federal Register by agency or by assigned subject headings for each rule, or by using the subject-specific practice area pages in the major databases. You can also use the Federal Register to monitor for new rules that would affect or amend any CFR Parts or Titles that you are studying.
You can track a specific proposed rule using the agency docket number assigned to each proposed rule, using the RIN assigned even earlier in the rulemaking process (in the Rulemaking Agenda), by tracking rules and notices by agency, or using alerts available in many databases.
Federal Register.gov: The Federal Register official site has the current issue, which you can navigate by type of action (including proposed rules) or by agency. It includes any notices, proposed rules, or rules available for public inspection, before official publication in the Federal Register. It has sections for popular documents, Presidential Documents (also published the Federal Register), and agency and topic lists for browsing. The advanced search feature allows searching the Federal Register by date, agency, document category, agency docket number, RIN, and CFR Part affected. Proposed rules on FederalRegister.gov have a heading with the comment period and a link for submitting formal comments. The rules are available in html and with a link to PDF of the published document. The sidebar with each includes agencies, dates, citation, CFR citation, agency docket number, and RIN.
Regulations.gov: Regulations.gov is an official site for submitting comments on proposed rules. You can search for rules by document type, keyword, limit to “open for comment,” dates including when comments are due, and by agency, and docket number. You can also browse by agency and “featured regulations.”
You can also find the Federal Register in Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg Law, and Hein Online.
Other sources that you can use to keep track of new and pending regulations:
Westlaw: Use the Practice Areas and Practitioner Insights for Construction Law, Securities Enforcement and Litigation, or Health Law. Practitioner Insights pages will include articles on regulatory activities.
Lexis: Use the Practice Area for Torts ,Securities Law, Healthcare Law, or Construction Law. Practice area pages will include news from Law360 and other news sources on agency regulatory activities.
Bloomberg Law: Bloomberg Law’s Monitor Regulators page has proposed rules, news releases, guidance documents and other agency documents, and new court decisions by agency. Tracker pages by subject also track new regulatory actions, including rulemaking and enforcement.
The websites of federal agencies will announcements of new rules and proposed rules for that agency. USA.gov has an A-Z Index of US government departments and agencies. The United States Government Manual is a good source for more information about agency responsibilities and contact information.
ABA Center for Professional Responsibility: Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ABA Formal Ethics Opinions, Directory of State Disciplinary Agencies, links to other professional responsibility resources
ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct: Ethics rules (ABA Model Rules, state ethics rule links), ABA ethics opinions, summaries of state ethics opinions, practice guides. It's also available on Bloomberg Law.
Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct: KF305 .A2 and Westlaw
Foundations of the Law and Ethics of Lawyering: KF306 .A4 F68 (2004)
Westlaw: Ethics and Professional Responsibility Secondary Sources
Lexis: Has the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ABA Formal and Informal Ethics Opinions, and some state ethics opinions.
Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers: Print at Range 301, Westlaw, and Hein Online's ALI Library
Georgia-specific resources on legal ethics:
The State Bar of Georgia website has the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, disciplinary proceedings, and advisory opinions.
Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct are included in Georgia Court Rules and Procedure, vol. 1, State, KFG529 .A193, and Georgia Rules of Court Annotated, KFG529 .A194, both in the reference collection on the 2nd floor.
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions: Codes of Ethics Collection. Browse or search by institution or topic.
Markula Center for Applied Ethics: Links and articles on business ethics and bioethics.
Codes of Professional Responsibility: Ethics Standards in Business, Health, and Law, 4th ed. (Service Desk, BJ1725 .C57 2000). Compiled ethics codes, but not up-to-date.
American Institute of CPAs: Standards and Statements
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards: Professional Standards and Enforcement
American Institute of Architects: Code of Ethics and Bylaws, with decisions and advisory opinions
National Society of Professional Engineers: Ethics Resources
American Medical Association: Medical Ethics, including the AMA Code of Medical Ethics
American Dental Association: Ethics and Professional Conduct
American Psychological Association: Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct
