Legal Research Methods and Approaches

What is Legal Research?

Legal research is the process of identifying and analyzing sources of law to determine the current state of law and legal authority to support a legal argument or position. The key objectives are:

• Finding binding primary sources of law like statutes, regulations, and case law that govern the legal issue.
• Validating that the law found is still valid and has not been overruled or superseded.
• Identifying secondary resources like journal articles that provide context and commentary around primary sources.

Types of Legal Research Authorities

There are two main types of authorities in legal research - primary and secondary.

Primary Sources

Primary sources of law are the direct, binding sources established by legislature and courts. They contain legal rules that must be followed. Examples of primary authorities:

• Constitutions and charters
• Statutes and legislation
• Municipal ordinances
• Court opinions and decisions
• Court rules and procedures
• Administrative decisions
• Executive orders and proclamations

Case law from higher courts is mandatory binding authority. Lower court case law is persuasive authority.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources provide commentary and analysis of primary sources but are not binding. They help understand the application of primary sources. Examples of secondary authorities:

• Legal encyclopedias like Corpus Juris Secundum
• Law review articles and journal publications
• Treatises, restatements, and textbooks
• Practice guides
• Dictionaries and glossaries
• Annotations and commentary by legal experts

Secondary sources provide an overview of the law and highlight significant primary sources.

A Systematic Approach to Legal Research

Conducting efficient legal research requires a systematic approach of the following steps:

1. Identify Key Facts and Legal Issues

• Analyze the problem and identify relevant facts and jurisdictions. This narrows down applicable legal issues.

2. Determine the Appropriate Sources to Check

• Based on the jurisdiction and legal issues, determine which primary sources of law (constitutions, statutes, case law etc.) must be reviewed.
• Identify useful secondary sources like journal articles.

3. Find Relevant Primary Authorities

• Leverage indexes, annotations and online databases to efficiently find binding primary authorities.
• Shepardize cases and statutes to ensure they are still good law and have not been overturned.

4. Review Secondary Resources

• Use secondary materials to gain better perspective on how primary sources apply to the legal problem.
• Check if any secondary sources have critiqued the relevant primary authorities.

5. Refine and Update the Research

• Refine searches further using updated terms and newly found sources.
• Stay current by setting up alerts for new legal developments.

6. Analyze and Apply the Results

• Analyze the impact of relevant legal authorities on the problem.
• Summarize conclusions and legal reasoning in memorandums and briefs.

Following a methodical approach is key to effective and comprehensive legal research. The goal is to efficiently uncover the most relevant mandatory and persuasive sources of law pertaining to the legal issue at hand.