Planning Legal Research
Legal researches are tacktful analysis of legal case scenarios aimed at establishing the relevance of legal actions and principles as interpreted and applied by attoney generals and other members of the judiciary. The applicability of planning and research to law as a discipline of study is synonymous of the fact that legal analysis and research are simultaneous to each other thus there arises the need for a clear statement of memorandum so as to establish not only a clear research but also a well orgganizae research analysis. For instance this paper aims at planning a legal research on the case of City Campaign versus Madigan (Laurel, Anne & Kelly, 2012). The case drafted on 24th July, 20013 was objective in deterinings the level of informational disclosure which limits sending or receiving any form of communication during public meetings. As a result, according to research findings made by Victor Filippini and Benjamin Schuster, the legal research to be conducted is limited by the decision made by the Illinois Appelant Court which reportedly narrowed down the Attoney Generals opinion regarding the Freedom of Information Act abbreviated as (FOIA). The act was solely enacted to protect the public against biased communications that could be made by elected officials and disceminated through private devices.
Specifically the Appelant Court of Illinois issued the ultimatum regarding City of Champaign v. Madigan case on the 16th July, 2013 at the fourth district. The court required the City of Champaign to allow the court to access certain information in the form of text messages and emails that were sent, received and stored on the personal computers and other electronic devices belonging to public officers. The decree was passed following the provision stipulated in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Illinois court of Appellant further narrowed down the opinion that had earlier been issued by the Attoney General concerning the release of private information by the City of Campiagn. The court sought to make it clear that text messages as well as emails stored in electronic devices and private computers belonging to the officials could be implicated as public records only when they are received or sent for the duration of a public meeting (Laurel et al, 2012).
Given prior knowledge that planning legal research requires a detailed outline to guide the collection og information from the main participants in the case, there arises the need for the researcher to present viable ideas that are factual in presenting the situation and the involvement of the Attoney General. This is simply because the research is purposeful in solving a problem and not magnifying the it. Accordingly this research is a collection og electronic and print sources which cumulatively make up the secondary sources of data among them beinf encyclopedias of law, textbooks, journals and news articles containing relevant clauses, cases and statutes. By so doing the risk of presenting doubtable ideas is significantly reduced thus a good legal research is a presentation of knowledge which can be used by any one including law experts to applicably use the law. Furthermore it requires practice in order to make the research more relevant.
In this case, collecting background information regarding the occurance of events until the time the ruling was made by the Appelant Court of Illinois becomes of essence. According to the Campaign News Gazette on 3rd May, 2011, a reporter who attended the meeting organized by the City of Council of Illinois known as the City of Campaign wrote after witnessing the proceeding of the meeting that members representing the city council were communicating through cellphone text messages and emails. The claims made by the reporter are idealistic in the sense that a public meeting held by the council officials needs to be a public forum where ideas are freely aired and reported to the public but this requirement was not adhered to rather the members of the council communicated using texts and emails instead of following the right protocol stipulated by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Accordingly the reporter made a request quoting the provision made by the FOIA act. The request was to claim access to the electronic communications that were being sent and received during the public assemblies meeting. In the letter of request, the reporter made it clear that the information required for scrutiny included that contained on personal cellphones as well as those issued by the city to the officials, secondly the personal email addresses and lastly their twitter accounts. With respect to the request made by the reporter, he was only issued with electronic communication from the cellphones and email accounts held by the City of Campaign but refuded to issue information from the private cellphones and mails (Victor & Benjamin, 2013). The reporter decided to seek court redress on the isse by challenging the partial access to electronic communication discussed by the members of the council. The Attoney General suppoted the reporter when he issued his opinion that was binding to the fact that secretive emails and text messages privately exchanged by the members of the city council during the meeting was classified as public business thus the private emails and text messages were public records. The Attoney supported his binding opinion by quoting the FOIA act.
The Attoney General further rejected the argument posed by the City of Campaign arguing that the information was private owing to the fact that it was possessed by the members of the councils and not by the city. The Attoney General insisted that private emails and texts were not private but public since the disseminators and receivers of the information used it to pass across vital information regarding affairs of the government. When the City of Campaigh sought redress from the Circuit Court, the court upheld the Atooney Generals binding opinion. It is after these occurances that the City presented the case to the Illinois Appelant Court as the defendant and Madigan as the accuser. In evaluating opinions issued by the Attoney General, the fowing facts stand out.
Seemingly, the court of appellant dismissed the opinions made by the Attoney General on the ground that the records inform of emails and text messages held by the members of the City of Campaign was not public record as the Attoney General gad stipulated. This decision was made by the court of appeal citing that the assumption made by the Attoney General was lacking in the sense that public records were not necessarily a representation of public business. Apparently the legal research identified that the Attoney General needed to establish if the communication had been prepared by the members of the council which in the case represent a public body (Victor & Benjamin, 2013). Secondly the Attoney needs to have considered if the communication prepared for a public body and to be used by the public. Other questions revolving around the issue could be solved by answering the questions regarding who has control of the council members and if the information was to be received by the public. According to the court of appeal, the individual members of the City of Campaign council are not by any chance a public body as implied by the Attoney General. In my opinion, the communication that was sent and received by constituents to the City of Campaign members to their private electronic devices retains the right to be classified as personal communication.
However in the event that the the members of the council received and sent emails and text messages during a public session, the message must have had the implication that it was for public use and considering that the communication occurred during a public session, the court of appeal as well as the attoney and the reporter had the right to access the information on the private cellphones and email accounts belonging to the council members.
According to the nature of the case study and the thin line presented by the FOIA act protecting access to private and public information, a multiple citation system is advised. For instance, the appellant court made the ruling in favor of the binding opinions made by the Attoney General by narrowing down the opinion based on the following tactical implications. There is an information gap presented by the FOIA especially with respect to private communication between elected council officials. There abounds some controversies in the previlages presented by FOIA none the less the implications can be avoided by ensuring that the communication remains between the council members thus being classified as a private control (Victor & Benjamin, 2013). And secondly the implications of such cases can be reduced in future by avoiding communication using private electronic devices during public meetings or sessions.
In order to validate and consequently updata a research the issue of knowledge comes into play. The knowledge should involve a wide array of information concerning the different clauses made by acts, statutes and bills passed in parliament (Victor & Benjamin, 2013). The relevance of a legal research starts with the selection of a case which can be easily established from an internet source of any othe secondary information. The planning session can be aided by internet sources which logically states the issues and provide possible frameworks for analysis. The researcher then has to show mastery of theoretical research by discussing legislations while critically analyzing the applicability of his or her research findings.
References
Laurel, C. O., Anne, E. & Kelly, K. (2012). The Legal Writing Handbook. New York: Aspen Publishers.
Victor, P. & Benjamin, L. (2013). Illinois Appellate Court Narrows Attorney General’s FOIA Opinion on Communications on Elected Officials’ Private Devices. Retrieved from
