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apply where the court takes judicial notice that they do not 
come within the legislative intent. 
Evaluating Statutes. Circumstances strengthening or 
weakening the effect of statutes may be classified as those af- 
fecting its accuracy, and, to determine this, revisions should be 
compared with session laws and sessions laws with legislative 
records; those affecting its constitutionality, and for this 
various headings, like due process of law, commerce, etc., 
should be examined; those concerning subsequent legislation, 
superseding, repealing, or amending the statute ; and those 
concerning constructions already made by decisions of courts. 
Abstracting a Case. Both the student in preparing cases for 
report in the classroom and the practitioner in preparing cases 
for presentation in the courtroom should make careful ab- 
stracts of them. An abstract should contain the following 
parts arranged in the order indicated: 
1. The title, date, and place where the case is reported. 
2. A statements of the facts of the case. In addition, if 
the case is one which the student is studying in a procedural 
course, or if the point involved in the practitioner’s case is 
a procedural point, there should be a statement of the man- 
ner in which the issue, or issues, were presented to the trial 
court, the disposition of the case made by the trial court, 
and the manner in which the case came before the appellate 
court if an appeal case. 
3. A statement of the question, or questions, of substantive 
law involved in the facts. If the case involves procedural 
points or is being studied in procedural courses, the procedural 
questions should be stated. 
4. The decision of the court deciding the case. 
5. The reasons given by the court for the decision, that is, 
the doctrines of the case. 
6. Any dicta or explanatory matter of which the ab- 
stractor desires to make a note. 
Immediately following is given an illustration of how a case 
should be abstracted : 
Adams et al. v. Lindsell et al., 1 B. & Aid. 681, (1818) 
The defendants offered by mail to sell the plaintiffs wool at a cer- 
tain price, “receiving your answer in course of post”, but the de- 
fendants misdirected their letter so that it was delivered to the plain- 
