Legal research is the process of finding reference material to answer legal questions. It is conducted by legal professionals and can be done electronically or through library materials. Primary and secondary sources are used, and online databases have made research faster but can be costly.
Legal research refers to the process of searching for reference material to find the answer to a certain legal question. Legal research is conducted regularly by paralegals, attorneys and other legal professionals. It can be conducted electronically or through the use of library materials and plays a vital role in preparing a legal case.
In the United States and many other jurisdictions, the law is a complex and vast field of state and federal legislation, judicial opinions, and agency decisions. While statutes and formal laws are codified in code books, case law – or law made by judges – is found in the context of legal case transcripts that are published in numerous court reports. The legislature is constantly evolving and changing, as judges decide new cases – setting new precedents – and legislatures pass new laws.
When a legal matter arises, such as a lawsuit or felony charge or family court dispute, it is important to understand the state of the law on that particular matter. For example, if a person has a dispute over whether their signature on a contract is sufficient to bind them to comply with the contract, it would be important to conduct legal research to find out the laws relating to what constitutes a legally binding contract. The rule of law governing whether his signature was sufficient to bind him could be found in a state or federal court ruling on a similar matter, or it could be found in state or federal law dealing with contracts and signing contracts . All of these sources of law should be examined to predict how the court might rule on the client’s situation.
To conduct legal research, an individual may refer to primary or secondary sources. Primary sources are those sources that will be binding in a court of law, such as references to case law or a statute. Secondary sources are resources that are not binding and cannot be referenced in court records, but which give a person a good idea of where to look to find binding sources. A secondary source could be a Restatement of the Law, which is a book published by legal experts compiling all the important decisions and rules on a given legal issue, or it could be a legal review article, which is an article published in a academic journal.
Legal research can be a time-consuming process that involves searching through hundreds of legal documents. Online databases have made it easier and faster to conduct research by allowing an individual to generate searches and tailor the results to their specific location and field of interest. The trade-off with using an online legal database is that such databases often charge a high fee for the convenience they offer.
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