· We typically start primary law research here. If there is a controlling statute, cases we look for later will be interpreting that law. Also, you can find cases related to the statutory section that interests you quickly and easily, if you use an annotated statute. Annotated codes are a great place to start your research.
Step 3: Make sure you are using “good” law. One of the most important steps with every legal research project is to verify that you are using “good" law—meaning a court hasn't invalidated it or struck it down in some way. After all, it probably won't look good to a judge if you cite a case that has been overruled or you use a statute ...
b. Errors in documents submitted to a court may cause the judge to question the competence of the attorney and the quality and content of the research and analysis. d. The writer's research and analysis skills may become suspect if research sources are …
Start studying Legal Research and Writing. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. ... One advantage paper-based research has over online research is. source reliability. ... An office memorandum of law must present.
You can browse and search for case law in the same way you search for primary sources: by subject, with a citation, or using keywords. To maximize your efficiency use a secondary source to identify important cases that you can use as a foundation for your research.
Understanding the Legal Questions. A legal question often originates in the form of a problem or a story about a series of events. In law school, these appear as fact patterns. In practice, this may come in the form of an assignment from a manager or an interview with a potential client. Start by doing the following:
Logging your research will ensure that you do not miss sources and can explain your research strategy, which you may be asked to do. Researchers can keep logs on paper, in folders on Westlaw or Lexis, or in another online citation management platform. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
Headnotes are organized by subject into a large outline that allows you to search headnotes by subject. This outline is known as a "digest of cases." By browsing or searching the digest you can retrieve all headnotes covering a particular topic and identify the particularly important cases to which these headnotes are attached.
Restatements are organized into chapters, titles, and sections. Sections contain a concisely stated rule of law, comments to clarify the rule, hypothetical examples, explanation of purpose, as well as exceptions to the rule. To access restatements visit: American Law Institute Library on HeinOnline.
Some platforms such as Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, or Refworks might be useful if you are working on a long term project that will require a lot of research. These are good tools to keep your research well organized. Please note, however, that none of these platforms are not a substitute for doing your own proper Bluebook citations. Learn more about citation management software on our other research guides:
Legal dictionaries are similar to other dictionaries that you are likely familiar with, and have used in the past. Legal encyclopedias contain brief, broad summaries of legal topics, providing introductions and explaining terms of art. They also provide citations to primary law and relevant major law review articles.
Alternatively, lawyers may need legal research to simply provide clients with accurate legal guidance. And in the case of law students, they often use legal research to complete memos and briefs for class. But these are just a few of the situations in which legal research is necessary.
No matter the legal research project, you must identify the relevant legal problem as well as the outcome or relief sought. This information will guide your research so you can stay focused and on topic.
In most instances, the purpose of legal research is to find support for a specific legal issue or decision. For example, attorneys must conduct legal research if they need court opinions (that is, case law) to back up a legal argument they are making in a motion or brief filed with the court. Alternatively, lawyers may need legal research ...
Black's law dictionary defines legal research as “ [t]he finding and assembling of authorities that bear on a question of law." But what does that actually mean? Essentially, it means that legal research is the process you use to identify and find the laws—including statutes, regulations, and court opinions —that apply to the facts of your case.
Before you start looking for laws and court opinions, you first need to define the scope of your legal research project. There are several key questions you can use to help do this.
Because secondary sources provide you with a thorough overview of legal topics, meaning you don't have to start your research from scratch. After secondary sources, you can move on to primary sources of law.
The simplest way to find out if something is still good law is to use a legal tool known as a citator, which will show you subsequent cases that have cited your source as well as any negative history, including if it has been overruled, reversed, questioned, or merely differentiated.
Before you start any study involving data collection with people, you’ll submit your research proposal to an institutional review board (IRB).
Ethical considerations in research are a set of principles that guide your research designs and practices. Scientists and researchers must always adhere to a certain code of conduct when collecting data from people.
This is problematic because you may benefit from presenting your ideas as new and original even though they’ve already been published elsewhere in the past. You may also be infringing on your previous publisher’s copyright, violating an ethical code, or wasting time and resources by doing so.
Psychological harm: Sensitive questions or tasks may trigger negative emotions such as shame or anxiety.
To keep your data confidential, you take steps to safeguard it and prevent any threats to data privacy. You store all signed consent forms in a locked file drawer, and you password-protect all files with survey data.
Research ethics matter for scientific integrity, human rights and dignity, and collaboration between science and society. These principles make sure that participation in studies is voluntary, informed, and safe.
You recruit participants outside a train station for a quick survey.
A local University is hosting the law school admissions test (LSTAT) for a large group of prospective law students. Since there is such a large group taking the test, some professors of sociology from the local university decide to administer a questionnaire to the group asking their ideas on teenage sexual promiscuity.
Scientist must have two types of support before they will agree on something they haven't personally experienced. These types are?
According to deterrence theory, punishment for a deviant act reduces the likelihood that a person will repeat the act. A researcher decides that it must therefor be likely that tougher gun control laws would reduce the gun crimes of repeat offenders. This is an example of?
The three main elements in the traditional model of science includes theory, operationalization, and?