Estate Planning Resources at the Anchorage Law Library

Susan FalkSeptember 2006

sfalk@courts.state.ak.us(907) 264-0581

2

What are your research needs?

What are the biggest challenges in estate planning today?

Do you use a current awareness service? How do you research issues? What tools and resources do you use? What tools and resources would you like to

see in the library?

3

Resources in the Library

Things you still can’t get online – Books! Treatises and Law Reviews can be checked

out by Bar members We can mail them to you if you’re not in

Anchorage

4

Major Works

Scott on the Law of Trusts Bogert, The Law of Trusts and Trustees Page on the Law of Wills Price on Contemporary Estate Planning Pennell, Estate Planning

5

The Basics

Restatements Second, Third, and Prudent Investor Rule

Nutshells Uniform Probate Code Introduction to Estate Planning

Federal Estate and Gift Tax Reporter

6

Practice Guides

How to Build and Manage an Estates Practice Family Estate Planning Guide A Lawyer’s Guide to Estate Planning Tax, Estate & Financial Planning for the

Elderly Planning an Estate Drafting Wills and Trust Agreements: A

Systems Approach

7

For your Clients

ABA Guide to Wills and Estates: Everything You Need to Know About Wills, Estates, Trusts and Taxes

NOLO Press Make Your Own Living Trust NOLO’s Will Book The Quick and Legal Will Book Long-Term Care: How to Plan and Pay For It

8

Law Journals

Trusts and Estates Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal

(and Proceedings) Estate Planning

9

And…

What else do you wish we had?

10

Westlaw at the Library

Free All federal and state statutes All federal and all state case law Keyciting – update the statutes or cases Am.Jur. Legal Forms Law Review articles Alaska briefs are being added Estate Planning databases focus your search

11

HeinOnline

A free online database available in the law library

Features an enormous library of journals, including over over 1100 titles, usually back to the first volume

Also includes a Federal Register Library and other federal material like treaties and legislative history

12

State Resources Online

Links to all state legal resources at court website: http://www.state.ak.us/courts

Includes links to state sites for: Alaska statutes

http://www.legis.state.ak.us/folhome.htm Alaska administrative code

http://www.legis.state.ak.us/cgi-bin/folioisa.dll/aac?

Alaska court rules http://www.state.ak.us/courts/rules.htm

13

Alaska Case Law Database

http://government.westlaw.com/akcases Alaska Supreme Court and Court of Appeals All published opinions back to 1960 Unpublished decisions (MOJs) back to 1991,

with older decisions being added No headnotes or keyciting

14

Different Ways to Search

Search by Case name Attorney Pacific Reporter citation or WL citation Decision date Judge name Opinion type Docket number Word

15

How to Search by Word

AND, OR, BUT NOT Truncation !

trust! will find trust and trustee disab! will find disabled and disability

Search by phrase – use quotes “irrevocable trust”

Use the singular form – it will automatically look for plurals

16

Case Law Database Searching

Once you’re in a case, can use Control-F to find specific search terms

Space = OR so remember to type AND if you are looking for both terms in a case

Example gift and trust! testa! and codicil

17

Is it Still Good Law?

There is no citator service in the database Instead, use the name of the case as the

search term for a word search All cases discussing that case will come up

18

The Library is Here to Help

Call the library reference desk if you have questions: (907) 264-0585

Reference librarians can walk you through Westlaw searching or finding a website to help

We have thousands of forms available Catalog is on-line:

http://www.state.ak.us/courts/library.htm You can check out treatises for 3 days We will mail them to you if you live outside Anchorage