In the Land of the Law judges are master. Thus, to properly interpret a statute you usually need to know how courts have previously interpreted one or more of the specialized words and phrases (i.e., jargon) it contains. One tool to help you do this is Words and Phrases (West Publishing Co.), a multi-volume set of one-sentence interpretations of common words and phrases that have been pulled from cases and organized alphabetically according to words and phrases that are commonly found in statutory and case law. In essence, this publication allows you to find out whether courts have interpreted or used any particular word or phrase you are interested in, and if so, how.
