How to do Legal Research in Law School
Overview
This guidance template will introduce an important skill for law students and lawyers namely, legal research and will walk through the standard legal research process. Most law students in their first year of law school will have a class dedicated to legal research. Learning legal research is part of the process of becoming a lawyer.
The basics
Question: What is “legal research?”
Answer: Legal research is the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making.
Question: So why do it?
Answer: Support legal decision-making:
COMPLEX legal issues.
Applied to SPECIFIC facts.
Requiring COMPLETE answers.
For clients that PAY for your expertise.
The process
The legal research process is based upon the legal research pyramid.
Lexis' research advice:
Start with a general background search.
Support with secondary sources.
Validate with primary sources.
Starting your research
Step 1: Open web search
Starting on the open web such as Google. This is a good place to start but:
Is not specific enough.
Rarely authoritative (can't cite to Google in court).
Credibility of sources is always a question.