School: The E-Z way out

Studying for Monday's Criminal Procedure exam was starting to wear thin, so I picked up a couple of secret weapons from the Levin College of Law bookstore's bargain rack:

The E-Z Review: Criminal Procedure &

Casenote Legal Briefs: Criminal Procedure

I've never used any kind of outside supplement or outline before. Up to this point, I've relied on my book, the notes scribbled in my book's margins, and the spoken word of the professor to get me through law school. I felt different about this one, though. Maybe it was the scattershot way Baldwin lectured on the various topics, maybe it was the strange organization of the book itself, but I've been really slow constructing my outline, and unlike other courses, the outline hasn't been as helpful. So let's turn to these Cliff's Notes-like crutches:

The "E-Z Review" is what it sounds like - an outline that reviews most of the stuff a criminal procedure course covers. The version I bought was hopelessly out of date (in the field of criminal procedure, anything before 9/11 and the PATRIOT Act is now out of date). Thankfully, the various standards for Terry stops, warrantless searches, assistance of counsel, and other concepts haven't changed much. The book is pretty concise, but it would not be helpful at all to someone who hasn't at least attempted to write their own outline.

The legal briefs book contains briefs (that is, short summaries) of all the cases in a particular textbook. Unfortunately, my book isn't covered here. On the other hand, most of these cases are common to all criminal procedure textbooks (Miranda, Terry, Gates, Katz, etc.). Then again, you can get similar summaries for free off of Westlaw or LexisNexis. Oh well - the Casenote book only cost $5.