Legal arguments are almost always predicated upon relationships between various areas of the law. Lawyers must identify any statutory law, case law, administrative agency regulation, and legislative history relating to a particular issue. These cross-references also are transferable across jurisdictions. Experienced researchers use cross-references instinctively. Usually cross-references appear at the end of the main material, but not always.
Many references appear parenthetically within the information.
Examine frequently used tools to anticipate the kind of help available. A tool similar to the Texas Transaction Guide will provide forms for areas such as business organization and estate planning and also will incorporate references to statutes pertaining to those areas. The Texas Transaction Guide also incorporates references to annotations and law reviews, as well as to form books published by Matthew Bender. American Law Reports Annotated 5th Series contains valuable references to related ALR articles, to West Digest Key Numbers, to legal encyclopedias, and to applicable federal and state statutes. References to forms and to cases appear in the footnotes of the articles.