Conducting Legal Research Plan Example

Not all lawyers or paralegals can conduct a good legal research because bad research skills may be invaluable in practicing law. To develop an effective research strategy, the researcher needs to be familiar with some steps. The steps may not be linear because one may be needed to repeat certain approaches and steps from different perspectives of understanding legal issues. To carry out a good legal research, it is important to follow the following steps.

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Step 1: Consult the Primary and Secondary Sources

This is the most important step when carrying out a legal research. It is essential to learn about a legal topic before beginning your research. To find the answer to a legal question without an understanding of the broad legal topic is difficult (Fitzgerald, 2010). Thus, to learn about the topic, the researcher can use primary and secondary sources. Good primary and secondary sources that can be utilized are encyclopedias and dictionaries, legal treatises, restatements of the law, and online resources. Through the secondary resources, one can get definitions of legal terms, in-depth analysis, and commentary on a given legal topic. By gathering information, one will be able to get relevant results.

Step 2: Expand and Update Primary Law

Before searching the case law, you should consider the applicable statute, which may contain annotations or not. If the applicable statute contains annotations, the case law research needs to start with the cases listed in statute annotations. If you find a statute that is applicable, but without annotations, the case law research needs to begin with searching the statute citation to find case laws mentioning that statute. The researcher can also try using legal topic designations or a combination of keywords to narrow the search before getting any relevant results (Whitehead & Matthewman, 2012).

Step 3: Analyze & Organize Results

In case the research problem is founded on a fact pattern, it is critical to consider the facts and start characterizing the facts within a legal framework. You may structure your analysis by putting parties, events, and claims together. This structure is important in any legal research. One may miss critical issues by not putting the problem in such an open-ended manner. During the analysis, it is also critical to note whether some legal issues or facts are determinative. Issues that are determinative need to be given the priority in any legal research. Making the list of subject headings and keywords during a legal research is critical. Include important legal concepts and factual terms in the list of keywords. The identification of subject headings, keywords, and issues at this stage is important in expediting the research, and allows a more thorough and accurate analysis of law (Whitehead & Matthewman, 2012). It is important to refer to refer to the initial characteristics of issues as the research project progresses.

When researching about a simple issue, materials can be organized in a single electronic folder or paper folder with ease. However, for a complex research project, there is a need to keep separate folders with different law issues. Copies of relevant sources can be put in an appropriate folder. Keeping the general research notes, like the research strategy, problem assigned and the issues and sub-issues identified is also critical (Whitehead & Matthewman, 2012). Checking the sources that have been rejected or reviewed and the sources that still need to be checked is useful in increasing your efficiency. Organizing the information therefore keep you from repeating the same steps or going in circles. References

Fitzgerald, Legal Problem Solving Reasoning, Research and Writing, 5th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2010).

Whitehead & Matthewman, Legal Writing, and Research Manual, 7th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis Butterworths, 2012).