In the realm of legal practice, courtroom appearances often take the spotlight, yet the backbone of a compelling legal argument lies in thorough research.
Well-executed legal research not only strengthens your arguments but also substantiates your legal endeavors, ultimately leading to more favorable outcomes for your clients.
To master this skill, it's crucial to familiarize yourself with the available tools and develop an effective research strategy. While learning to conduct precise legal research may not be the most glamorous aspect of the profession, it proves invaluable, saving time and enhancing the quality of your legal work.
This guide delves into the essentials of the legal research process, outlining the sources you should consult and when to do so. Additionally, it addresses the importance of verifying that you're relying on "good" law and provides tips for honing your legal research skills at any stage of your career.
For a more in-depth exploration, you can access our on-demand webinar featuring our lawyer in residence, Joshua Lenon. This webinar offers valuable insights on elevating your legal research to a higher level.
What is legal research?
Legal research involves identifying, finding, and cite-checking information and applicable laws needed to support your legal decision-making. The primary and secondary legal sources for this research include statutes, constitutions, regulations, court orders, and more.
How to do legal research
While the techniques and tools you use may vary, the goal of legal research is simple: You want to find the relevant information and resources (i.e. laws) that apply to the facts of your case, so you can support legal decision making.
With this in mind, the legal research process can be broken down into three basic elements:
Understanding the key details and questions of your legal issue
Finding laws and information to support your legal argument checking that what you’ve found is still relevant
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Master the Art of Legal Research: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
Mastering Legal Research and Writing: A Practical Approach
Achieve your research goals in seven easy to follow steps:
Gather critical information about your legal issue
When presented with a legal issue, it’s natural to want to dive in and start looking for cases. But it’s in your best interest to first collect key details about the legal issue at hand.
Pausing to gather and record critical details (like the who, what, when, where, and how of your case) lays the foundation for a more focused, streamlined legal research process.
Establish your legal issue and your goal
A dart on the bullseye, representing a legal research goal
Next, use your case’s critical information to pinpoint your legal issue. By establishing legal issues and your client’s ideal outcomes before you start researching, you can construct a well-defined framework that allows you to:
See what you know about your legal issue—and what you need to find out
Narrow the field of potential search terms
Identify the jurisdiction you need to focus your research within
Learn and understand the precedent in your jurisdiction
While researching, pay special attention to the geographical location where your legal issue will be resolved. Is the precedent controlling already in your jurisdiction? Or is it merely a persuasive precedent that has not yet been adopted in your jurisdiction?
Determine the type of legal sources you need
Each of the three types of legal sources you’ll work with has a purpose in the legal research process. Here’s a quick overview:
Primary legal sources are key to legal research because they establish the current law on whatever legal issue you’re working with. You can find primary sources by searching legal research databases like Fastcase or Casetext, include:
- Federal and state constitutions
- Statutes or legislation (such as laws enacted by legislative bodies like Congress and state legislatures)
- Regulations (such as rules or regulations made by either federal or state agencies)
- Case law (such as court opinions or decisions issued by federal or state courts)
Secondary legal sources explain or interpret legal principles in detail, or summarize the current state of the law—giving a better understanding of a particular area of law. These sources are also useful for identifying primary sources for your case (more on that later). Examples include:
- Law review articles and journals
- Practice guides
- Legal treatises
- Learn more about the best free legal research tools available.
When it comes to legal research sources, start in the middle with secondary sources.
In addition to providing important background information on your legal issue, secondary sources save time: Instead of starting from scratch, you can leverage the expert work that’s already been done.
Think of it this way: In order to create and publish the material, experts had to go through a legal research process themselves. If a secondary source is reputable, the writer reviewed all of the available primary resources to determine what was most applicable. So, by noting the primary sources that are cited in law reviews, law journals, and case-law documents, you can take advantage of the research already done.
Note: Also keep in mind that useful cases don’t necessarily have to have the same legal outcome as your goal. If you find relevant case law where the outcome didn’t match your client’s desired outcome, you shouldn’t necessarily disregard it. If the laws are aligned, you can use that case to show how the fact patterns in your client’s case are different to strengthen your own argument.
Check that you’re using “good” law
Another key step to legal research is verifying that any cases and statutes you come across in your legal research are still “good” law—that is, that any legal decision you’re looking to is still valid and relevant. Using an overruled or unconstitutional statute won’t help you win your case.
Can older cases be “good” law?
While more recent cases are preferred (after all, they’re more likely to reflect the current legal changes that could impact the case law—and are thus less likely to have been rendered obsolete), recency isn’t mandatory.
A decades-old case could be considered “good” law—if it hasn’t been overruled in court or otherwise made irrelevant, an older case that fits with your case’s fact pattern and applicable law could be helpful.
Verify you’re using “good law” with a citator
How can you check if you’re using “good” law? Use a citator. Citators let you verify a case’s authority by giving you a cataloged list of cases, statutes, and legal sources—along with a history and precedential value for those sources—so you can then check that it hasn’t been overruled, questioned, or made irrelevant.
When using a citator, focus on the negative material (by checking a case in a citator, you can look for flags that indicate any negative history). Specifically, use a citator to check that you don’t miss a case that invalidates your argument—which could undermine your credibility.
Major legal databases all have their own citator tools. For example, Casetext offers SmartCite, which “uses a system of flags to indicate the treatment of cases.” Casetext can also “help you evaluate whether a case is good law and find other relevant cases citing that opinion.”
Report your results to check for gaps
Compiling your research into a legal memorandum is a necessary part of conducting legal research, as it allows you to identify any gaps in information that may present consequences at a later stage. Legal writing presents challenges within itself, and it’s not a bad approach for you to supplement your legal case research with a book from a local law library on how to present your findings. Generally speaking, a legal memorandum does five things:
- States the facts of the case
- Identifies the issue
- Applies “good” law to the facts
- Predicts any counterpoints
- Makes an assessment of the outcome of the case
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The Future of Legal Research: Leveraging Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing
How to Do Legal Research?
How can I improve my legal research skills?
Lawyer conducting legal research on a laptop
Whether you’re new to legal research or you’ve conducted legal research for years, once you have a solid understanding of the process, take advantage of strategies and tools to maximize legal research efficiency. Here are three strategies to consider:
Conduct more efficient research remotely
In the past, the legal research process was arduous—partly because it tied the researcher to a physical location—whether that was a local law library or a law office computer—to access resources through legal databases.
Today, online legal research software can be used remotely when integrated with a cloud-based practice management software. Having the flexibility to research from anywhere streamlines the legal research process and enhances efficiency.
Effective legal research needs to be thorough and accurate—which, traditionally, is time-consuming. Legal research AI can help speed that process up without sacrificing the quality of your research.
