LEGAL RESEARCH
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]
The processes of
legal research vary according to the country and the legal system involved. However, legal research generally
involves tasks such as:
1.
Finding primary sources of law, or primary authority, in a given jurisdiction (cases, statutes, regulations, etc.).
2.
Searching secondary authority (for
example, law reviews, legal dictionaries, legal treatises, and legal encyclopaedia as such as American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum),
for background information about a legal topic.
3.
Searching non-legal sources for investigative or
supporting information.
Legal research is
performed by anyone with a need for legal information, including lawyers, law librarians, and paralegals. Sources of legal information range from printed
books, to free legal research websites (like Cornell Law School’s Legal
Information Institute, Findlaw.com, Martindale Hubbell or CanLII) and information portals to fee database vendors such
as Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law. Law libraries around the world provide research services
to help their patrons find the legal information they need in law schools, law firms and other research environments. 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.
Database and Software Tools
·
Free-to-use
Although many jurisdictions publish laws online, case law
is often accessed through specialty online databases. Free-to-access services,
through the free law movement, include: Australasian Legal Information Institute, British and Irish Legal Information Institute, CanLII, Legal Information Institute, LexML Brasil, World
Legal Information Institute, Mindworks and Jurispedia.
·
Commercial
Commercial services for legal research include both primary and secondary sources.
Commercial services can be country-specific, international or comparative. Some
governments also provide access to certain resources through paid databases
Third party legal research provider
Legal research is known to take much time and effort, and
access to online legal research databases such as LexisNexis and Westlaw can be
costly. Consequently, with due consideration given to ethical concerns, law
firms and other practitioners may turn to third-party legal research providers
to outsource their legal research needs
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