Why Use Secondary Resources? Statute Hypothetical

Let's suppose that after school you decide to set up a home office for your solo practice (this really improves your morning commute). You are pretty sure that you can deduct the expenses of a home office from your income taxes, but you need to find the specific provision of the tax code that deals with this issue so you can learn about the details of this deduction. After looking in the index of the U.S.C., you find that the provision of the tax code on deductions for home offices is 26 U.S.C. § 280A, the beginning of which is shown here.

Notice the title of this section. This area of the tax code deals with expenses that are NOT deductible: "no deduction [...] shall be allowed with respect to the use of a dwelling unit". 26 U.S.C. § 280A(a).

But there is an exception to the disallowed residential deductions rule if the residence is used for certain business purposes: i.e., this is an exception to the rule about disallowed expenses and thus defines which expenses CAN be deducted. This is an easy concept to understand, but unfortunately it is expressed in the twisted bureaucratese that is typical of the tax code. Luckily, there are many secondary resources that can help you understand federal tax law.

This twenty-volume set is one of many large tax sets that provide a huge amount of detailed information about federal tax law. And don't be thrown by the word "Reporter" in this set's title: though it includes discussions of case law, it isn't just a reporter like the Pacific Reporter and other general case reporters with which you are more familiar.

The excerpt begins with a concise summary of this tax code section, explains the basic rule, and then offers a detailed analysis of how to qualify the expenses of a home office for a tax deduction. One major benefit of using secondary resources on tax law is that they are usually written in clearer language than the tax code itself.

The first type of secondary resource we will consider is Legal Encyclopedias.

Legal Encyclopedias are comprehensive sets of books that provide a basic overview of most broad areas of law. They are useful when you need an introduction to a legal subject that is new to you or when you need a quick answer to a simple legal question. However, they don't go into extensive detail on any one legal point.

The two major legal encyclopedias about general American Law are American Jurisprudence 2nd, commonly referred to using its abbreviation AmJur, and Corpus Juris Secundum (or "Body of Law, the Second"), known by its initials, CJS. Sample volumes from both CJS and AmJur are shown in this picture. Each set has over one-hundred and fifty volumes.

By browsing in the index of CJS, you'll likely find the section shown here, which discusses the duty to warn of potential allergic reactions.

And so we see that the short answer is, no, there generally is no duty to warn of potential allergic reactions if only a small number of consumers are likely to be affected, but a duty might arise if the potential for harm is high. As you can see, this brief, three-paragraph summary provides only a cursory overview of this legal question. Further research will definitely be required if you are going to trial on this issue.