The Untapped Potential in Practice Materials on VitalLaw

Our legal research databases are chock full of helpful secondary sources that greatly increase the efficiency and accuracy of our research. Practical law resources are a particular kind of secondary source that focus on helping lawyers complete specific tasks and work product. These can be of great help when you’re working on a task for the first time or want to double check your work.

You may be familiar with the many practice resources available on Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg. Many students will stick to just one or two of these databases. But this post will cover underutilized practice resources on VitalLaw, available to the UNC Law community through the subscription databases page. VitalLaw focuses on complex and highly regulated areas like tax, securities regulation, and health care law. Practice materials are particularly helpful in these areas of law due their rapid change and intricacy.

If you’re new to VitalLaw, you can easily access the practice materials from the home screen:

Let’s review some specific types of materials and why they can help:

(1) Smart Tasks

Smart Tasks collect together relevant primary and secondary sources to create a step by step walk through for specific tasks. They are similar to a checklist, but with explanatory information and relevant treatise sections baked in. If there is a Smart Task available for what you are working on, they are an excellent one-stop-shop.

For example, this Smart Task on responding to a whistleblower complaint includes direct links to relevant treatise entries that cite and explain relevant primary law. The Smart Tasks are also accredited to specific attorneys, and VitalLaw even links to their firm directory profile.

(2) Smart Charts

Smart Charts create a curated list of laws across jurisdictions in specific areas. These are similar to 50-state surveys, but allow you to customize and set their parameters to fit your needs.

On Vital Law, they are tax focused. For example, the state development charts let you select a specific tax type. The chart will then let you know if there have been any new developments in the set time period:

They also have many charts on specific tax topics that let you compare multiple state and issues a the same time. They also link directly to the primary law to help you verify the findings of the chart faster.

(3) Decision Trees

Decision Trees, similar to Smart Tasks, walk you through a specific practical task. But Decision Trees go a step further in that they actually require you to input the specifics of your situation. After completing each step of the tree, it will help determine what obligations your client may have.

For example, one tree will help you determine whether or not a client is complying with the Affordable Care Act’s dependent coverage requirements:

(4) Answer Books

FAQs are a staple of the internet. VitalLaw’s answer books are souped up FAQs that answer common compliance questions in a readable format. Further, unlike most FAQs you find online, they frequently cite to primary law or relevant secondary sources.

To find an answer to your specific question, you can keyword search or browse the table of contents.

(5) Final Tips and Cautions

• VitalLaw also provides traditional practice resources like forms, guide books, and checklists.

• Always check the currency date of any resource you use to make sure it has been recently updated.

• No matter how fancy the resource, always verify with relevant primary law sources. You are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of your work product!