Legal research

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Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and communication of the results of the investigation." [1]

Contents

The processes of legal research vary according to the country and the legal system involved. Legal research involves tasks such as: [2]

  1. Finding primary sources of law, or primary authority, in a given jurisdiction. The main primary sources of law include constitutions, case law, statutes, and regulations.
  2. Searching secondary authority for background information about legal topics. Secondary authorities can come in many forms, such as law reviews, legal dictionaries, legal treatises, and legal encyclopedias such as American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum.
  3. Searching non-legal sources for investigative or supporting factual information.

Legal research is performed by anyone with a need for legal information, including lawyers, law librarians, and paralegals. Sources of legal information can include printed books, free legal research websites (like Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute, Findlaw.com, Martindale Hubbell, or CanLII), and websites or software providing paid access to legal research databases such as Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis, Westlaw, Lex Intell, VLex, and Bloomberg Law. Law libraries around the world provide research services to help their patrons in law schools, law firms, and other research environments find the legal information they need. Many law libraries and institutions provide free access to legal information on the web, either individually or via collective action, such as with the Free Access to Law Movement.

Databases and software tools

Free-to-use

Although many jurisdictions publish laws online, [3] case law is often accessed through specialty online databases. [4] Free-to-access services, through the free law movement, include: Australasian Legal Information Institute, British and Irish Legal Information Institute, CanLII, Law Library Resource Xchange, Legal Information Institute, Lex Intell, and LexML Brasil.

A variety of commercial services offer free tools to conduct legal research as well. Google offers a free, searchable database of federal and state case law as part of Google Scholar. [5]

Commercial

Commercial services for legal research include both primary and secondary sources. Commercial services can be country-specific, international, or comparative. As of 2010, commercial legal research tools in the United States generated an estimated $8 billion in revenues per year. [6]

Some governments also provide access to certain resources through paid databases, such as the United States PACER law system.

Legal research may be done by lawyers and individuals who are not lawyers. Due to the complexity of laws and regulated nature of the practice of law, legal research is often completed by lawyers. Legal research is known to take significant time and effort, and access to online legal research databases can be costly. Individuals and corporations therefore often outsource legal research to law firms that have specialized legal knowledge and research tools. Even still, with due consideration given to ethical concerns, law firms and other practitioners may turn to third-party legal research providers to outsource their own legal research needs. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EUR-Lex</span> Official website of EU Law and documents

Eur-Lex is an official website of European Union law and other public documents of the European Union (EU), published in 24 official languages of the EU. The Official Journal (OJ) of the European Union is also published on EUR-Lex. Users can access EUR-Lex free of charge and also register for a free account, which offers extra features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westlaw</span> Online legal research service

Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statutes, administrative codes, newspaper and magazine articles, public records, law journals, law reviews, treatises, legal forms and other information resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HeinOnline</span> Online database for legal materials

HeinOnline (HOL) is a commercial internet database service launched in 2000 by William S. Hein & Co., Inc., a Buffalo, New York publisher specializing in legal materials. The company began in Buffalo, New York, in 1961, and is currently based in nearby Getzville, NY. In 2013, WSH Co. was the 33rd largest private company in western New York, with revenues of around $33 million and more than seventy employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law library</span> Special library for legal research

A law library is a special library used by law students, lawyers, judges and their law clerks, historians and other scholars of legal history in order to research the law. Law libraries are also used by people who draft or advocate for new laws, e.g. legislators and others who work in state government, local government, and legislative counsel offices or the U.S. Office of Law Revision Counsel and lobbying professionals. Self-represented, or pro se, litigants also use law libraries.

The Free Access to Law Movement (FALM) is the international organization devoted to providing free online access to legal information such as case law, legislation, treaties, law reform proposals and legal scholarship. The movement began in 1992 with the creation of the Legal Information Institute (LII) by Thomas R. Bruce and Peter W. Martin at Cornell Law School. Some later FALM projects incorporate Legal Information Institute or LII in their names, usually prefixed by a national or regional identifier.

The Canadian Legal Information Institute is a non-profit organization created and funded by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada in 2001 on behalf of its 14 member societies. CanLII is a member of the Free Access to Law Movement, which includes the primary stakeholders involved in free, open publication of law throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal Information Institute</span> Non-profit free legal information service at Cornell Law School

The Legal Information Institute (LII) is a non-profit public service of Cornell Law School that provides no-cost access to current American and international legal research sources online. Founded in 1992 by Peter Martin and Tom Bruce, LII was the first law site developed on the internet. LII electronically publishes on the Web the U.S. Code, U.S. Supreme Court opinions, Uniform Commercial Code, the US Code of Federal Regulations, several Federal Rules, and a variety of other American primary law materials. LII also provides access to other national and international sources, such as treaties and United Nations materials. According to its website, the LII serves over 40 million unique visitors per year.

FindLaw is a business of Thomson Reuters that provides online legal information in the form of state laws, case law and codes, legal blogs and articles, a lawyer directory, DIY legal services and products, and other legal resources. The company also provides online marketing services for law firms. FindLaw was created by Stacy Stern, Martin Roscheisen, and Tim Stanley in 1995, and was acquired by Thomson West in 2001.

Lexum is a Canadian legal technology firm, publishing legal information. Lexum is a member of the Free Access to Law Movement.

The British and Irish Legal Information Institute provides legal information, and especially reports of cases decided by courts, in the United Kingdom generally and the Republic of Ireland. Decisions from England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the European Union, and from the European Court of Human Rights, are put online. It is a partial online database of British and Irish legislation, case law, law reform reports, treaties and some legal scholarship.

Legal research is the process of identifying and retrieving information to support legal arguments and decisions. Finding relevant legal information can be challenging and may involve the use of electronic research tools as well as printed books and materials. However, many resources that are useful for legal research are fee-based, and many are not easily accessible.

Computer-assisted legal research (CALR) or computer-based legal research is a mode of legal research that uses databases of court opinions, statutes, court documents, and secondary material. Electronic databases make large bodies of case law easily available. Databases also have additional benefits, such as Boolean searches, evaluating case authority, organizing cases by topic, and providing links to cited material. Databases are available through paid subscription or for free.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australasian Legal Information Institute</span>

The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) is an institution operated jointly by the Faculties of Law of the University of Technology Sydney and the University of New South Wales. Its public policy purpose is to improve access to justice through access to legal information.

The Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII) collects and publishes legal materials from 20 Pacific Islands Countries on its website www.paclii.org. These countries are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Island, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.A mirror of the PacLII website is hosted by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), and is the version accessed by most users outside the Pacific Islands.

Legal awareness, sometimes called public legal education or legal literacy, is the empowerment of individuals regarding issues involving the law. Legal awareness helps to promote consciousness of legal culture, participation in the formation of laws and the rule of law.

Juror misconduct is when the law of the court is violated by a member of the jury while a court case is in progression or after it has reached a verdict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Law Libraries (U.S.)</span>

Public law libraries provide access to primary legal sources and secondary sources used in legal matters. In most U.S. states, public law libraries are part of the trial court system, a department of the state or county government, or an independent local government agency managed by a board of trustees. Public law libraries serve several user groups with different information needs: judges and their support staff, attorneys in all types of practice, and the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal technology</span> Technology and software to provide legal services

Legal technology, also known as Legal Tech, refers to the use of technology and software to provide legal services and support the legal industry. Legal Tech companies are often startups founded with the purpose of disrupting the traditionally conservative legal market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WIPO Lex</span>

WIPO Lex is an online global database launched in 2010, which provides free public access to intellectual property laws, treaties and judicial decisions from around the world. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) maintains and develops the database.

Access to justice is a basic principle in rule of law which describes how citizens should have equal access to the legal systems in their context. Without access to justice, people are not able to fully exercise their rights, challenge discrimination, or hold decision-makers accountable for their actions.

References

  1. ↑ Barkan, Steven M.; Bintliff, Barbara; Whisner, Mary. Fundamentals of Legal Research (10 ed.). Foundation Press. p. 1. ISBN   1609300564 . Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  2. ↑ "The basics of legal research". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  3. ↑ e.g., "legislation.gov.uk". The National Archives. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Guide to Law Online". Library of Congress. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  5. ↑ "Using Google Scholar for Case Law Research". Maryland Courts. Maryland State Law Library. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  6. ↑ Adams, Russell (8 July 2010). "Bloomberg Hangs New Shingle". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  7. ↑ Cohen, Adam I.; Lender, David J. (2016). Electronic Discovery: Law and Practice. Aspen Publishers Online. p. SA13-32. ISBN   1454815604.
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