Legal research plan

Year legal research year legal research guide: research ch strategy for 1l research ch memo short powerpoint presentation outlines some of the techniques and strategies that might be helpful for your research process of legal process of legal may be helpful to see a visual display of the research process. This file was originally created by sarah glassmeyer at - basic legal research: tools and strategies, 6th legal research: tools and strategies (6th ed. Reserve at the law library's circulation pages 304-307 of amy sloan's basic legal research textbook, you will find sample legal research flowcharts that show the thought process for handling certain types of research ching your first research assignment: purpose of this page is to outline a basic strategy for approaching your first open research assignment. It is most likely that this assignment will be your trial brief in the second semester of legal writing. If, by chance, you are reading this page and looking for information on how to approach your first research assignment for work as a clerk or an extern, you will find the approach outlined here to be fundamentally the same because the process of research, regardless of setting, always bears similar characteristics. If you are loooking for more in-depth information on applying this process to assignments in the workplace, see the summer associate research many respects working a “legal research plan” is much like briefing cases; there are certain steps that ought to be followed and certain landmarks to look for along the way. In the future, even though you may not work through the steps individually, you can be more confident that your research is complete, thorough, and accurate. Here are the steps:Step 1: preliminary 2: formulate a research 3: record your actions, sources, and 4: when do i stop researching? 5: update your 6: begin writing your 7: keep calm and carry one: preliminary you can begin researching, it is important to spend some time analyzing the materials that you’ve been given looking for clues to assist you in researching the question that you have been asked to answer. Very often research goes wrong because the researcher attempts to begin researching without being able to answer some very fundamental questions about the topic. It cannot be emphasized enough, especially in your first research projects, that you take the time to answer the following questions, and extract as much information as possible, before you begin researching. Part of the reason for this is that the answers to some of these questions will guide your research process in terms of locating and ordering we attempt to answer the legal question presented, we must understand it. It is crucially important that you read everything that you’ve been given carefully and ask yourself the following questions:What is the legal issue? Part of your research process may involve "learning” enough about an unfamiliar subject area to determine exactly what the proper legal question is. In other words, sometimes we need to go through a significant amount of research just to determine what the question is that we are trying to answer.

Only then can we do additional research, often using the same sources, to determine what the answer to the question are the parties involved? When asking yourself these questions, think in terms of potential legal relationships, and not necessarily labels. The answer to this question may be helpful  because it often leads the researcher to specific legal subject areas. Again, knowing the answer to this question, if ascertainable at this point, may lead the researcher to a specific legal topic like what standard needs to be met in order to get an injunction given a particular set of jurisdiction governs legal question at hand? Some legal subjects are governed primarily by federal law (environmental, immigration, copyright) and some by state (contracts, torts, criminal law). If you did know the answer with some certainty, again this would restrict your universe of possible sources because if you knew the question was governed by illinois law, for example, you could eliminate the federal law and 49 other states as potential research sources, or at least as primary authority. Doing so will allow you to focus your research much more narrowly and save a lot of valuable research did the events take place? The answer to this question helps to determine whether you are researching current law or there any starting points embedded in the preliminary materials? If you need to look up terminology in a legal dictionary, by all means do so, and do so before you continue on. If you make an assumption and it turns out that you are wrong, you only need to start your research over again. That is a tremendously inefficient way to two: formulate a research the conclusion of the preliminary analysis stage of the research plan, a researcher ought to have a basic understanding of the legal question and a list of search terms based on the questions above. The researcher might also know the jurisdiction to be searched, as well as whether it is current or historical information that is sought. A researcher's level of confidence will next guide the research strategy by indicating what resources should be searched, and in what order. Don’t go jumping into a rolling sea of contradictory opinions without the proper context for understanding the information that your research has gleaned. You'll just waste precious you can’t state your legal issue in a sentence at this point--in other words, if you are not confident that you have or understand all the terms of art, what the governing jurisdiction is, or what the governing law is--it's best to begin by trying to ascertain a very broad overview of your subject area.

One way to "learn" about unfamiliar legal topics (like intentional infliction of emotional distress or employment discrimination or injunctions), is to begin with basic secondary sources like national or state encyclopedias or hornbooks. Students are often loath to take this intermediary step because it’s not the fastest way to get research done. One important point to keep in mind here is that often preliminary research involves looking for starting points, and not necessarily looking for answers. You review one or more basic secondary sources, you should at some point feel confident that you can state your legal issue in a sentence. When that happens, keep reading , at least i think you have done a thorough job with your preliminary analysis you may at this point be able to state your legal issue in a sentence. That technique, however, is not recommended if you are exploring an unfamiliar area of you begin researching, take stock of what resources you have at your disposal. Another trick is to look at the practice pages on lexis and westlaw and bloomberg and see what major works or treatises are available through these y, remember that legal research is a recursive process. However, it leads to the next important point about executing a research three: record your actions, sources and ing a well thought out legal research plan is a lot like briefing cases. Once you become familiar with a particular area of law and its related research resources, your research process will become intuitive. So it’s important to have a log, separate of these research histories, even though there will be some now, here are six good reasons why you ought keep a "research log" for your first few assignments, followed by an example of one might look like:It’s helpful to have a a written record research log to keep track of sources consulted because, if your question changes slightly as you learn more about your legal topic, you will have a record of what has and hasn't been searched, what terms or techniques were used, and what the results were so you do not re-create the wheel and waste your own g a research log will give you some assurance that you haven’t missed anything. This will give you confidence that there isn’t more information lurking out there somewhere that you ought to have you need to consult with a partner, professor, or a librarian about your research, it would be most helpful to have a written record of what your searches have been and where you have looked. The best way to do that is by presenting the assigning attorney with your research log based on your research strategy and you have to set aside your research project for any length of time, a research log will help you by identifying where you have been, and what you have learned. If every time you sit in front of a computer you start fresh, you’re going to waste a lot of precious time, and you will have no confidence that you found everything that there is to find because you have no list or y, as you are researching, you will probably identify sources that seem interesting, or possibly helpful, but that may be outside the scope or focus of your current research. Often times skillful researchers end up finding very good resources or bits of information in places they never thought they’d be. Don’t lose the opportunity to take advantage of this information simply because you failed to record its existence when you had the a sample research log might look like:Next steps/ citations d from robert m.

Linz, research analysis and planning: the undervalued skill in legal research instruction, legal reference services quarterly, 34:1, 60-99 (2015). In the real world, the answer to this question often depends on budgets and time restrictions (for more on this, see the summer associate research guide). For purposes of your first research assignment, however, the simple answer is that you stop when you keep seeing the same information, and new information that you come across is not any more helpful than what you already have. Once you have this set of information – – information that has been recorded in your research log – – you can begin attempting to answer the question asked. So, in a sense, your research is never really five: update your matter what your research turns up, it’s important to update all of your sources using the citators available online: lexis (shepard’s), westlaw (keycite) and bloomberg (bcite). If you cannot account for these, you run the risk of having your position y, remember that a good researcher uses a citator, both to ensure the validity of authority, and to locate additional related six: begin writing your memo or step is misplaced because, for a number of reasons, you should begin writing well in advance of finishing your research. First, no matter how much research you have done, if you wait until the last minute to start writing, your written product will suffer. You need to allow for that possibility as seven: keep calm and carry surest way to achieve confidence that your research is current and complete is to try several different approaches to the same problem. If you were still considering more complex legal or policy issues, you might consult law review articles or a treatise. It's the sum of all these parts, and the realization that no matter where you look, you keep coming across the same information, that allow you to conclude you have found all relevant materials and you know exactly what to do with l free online legal research university chicago law h the law library's home page and a-z databases page, you can find links to many of the subscription resources we discussed in class (e. Federal and state government web sites, university web sites, and organizational web university chicago law library - research t guides to print and online resources available to law library university to the main campus library's database list, electronic journals search box, subject guides, and 's online es holdings of both print and online is general is legislation, legislative history and administrative newly-redesigned legislative information web site of the library of congress provides access to congressional bills, public laws, and legislative history u. Supreme t court of cook l information, court calendars, and circuit court county clerk of the circuit es downloadable pdf court bar association-provided legal research services. Map showing which legal research service (fastcase or casemaker) is provided free to members of state bar is secretary of state - to secretary of state services and forms (including corporate forms) and the illinois register (chronological illinois administrative law publication). Code, as well as wex, the collaboratively-created online legal encyclopedia/ to various state and federal legal information resources and legal library resource es on legal technology onic information system for international law. Web site from the american society of international law which provides "primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the internet.

Pearson street,© copyright & disclaimer is the "developing a research plan" page of the "legal methods" ate page for screenreader to page : basic legal research, legal basic techniques of legal analysis, writing and updated: aug 2, uction to legal ch with l legislative l administrative law onic legal ping a research - subject matter service ping a research sure you understand the problem. Think of other ways to approach the problem and the applicable legal back to secondary sources. They will identify key authorities and limit the scope of the you've located only secondary authority or primary persuasive authority, you might want to refocus on primary mandatory authority from the controlling the legal theories you are your textbook for sample legal research flowcharts and checklists that show the thought process for handling certain types of research ng a research ng a research plan requires three steps:Obtaining preliminary information about the much time do i have for the assignment? Understanding the scope of the assignment will help you focus your you know any of the sources that are good for researching in this area of law? Include looseleaf or other subject-matter background on the law or terms should i know as i begin my research? Reviewing briefs or memoranda on the same or similar issue or consulting the "resident expert" can help your research p an initial issue statement and generate search terms -- a preliminary assessment of the problem that helps define the scope of your fying research sources -- determine which research sources are likely to have relevant information. At a minimum, map out your search for primary mandatory vs electronic sources -- some sources can be accessed more easily in one format or the g track: effective notetaking -- know where you have looked and where you need to look; needed for proper citations; demonstrate that you undertook comprehensive researchto try to resolve the issues. Keep a list of the source or database, the citation (topic and key numbers), the method of locating the source, a summary of relevant information, and any updating ng when to stop -- you will know you have come full circle in your research when, after following a comprehensive research path through a variety of sources, the authorities you locate start to refer back to each other and the new sources you consult fail to reveal significant new -director & reference/technical services librariansusan giusticontact infosend emaillinks:website / blogprofile & to use print you are searching material not available online -- such as treatises and hornbooks, or legal you need general information on a topic about which you are your search terms are general or the subject of your research involves broad you are conducting statutory or regulatory you need to read authorities located through other to use electronic the material you need is not available in you have unique search terms or are searching for proper you need to update your d by springshare; all rights a tech support this page in a format suitable for printers and screen-readers or mobile sity of illinois law 792 s1: advanced legal ch planning & 792 s1: advanced legal research: research planning & ch planning & ation structure and secondary ements, uniform laws & model ss & tax page will provide you with an outline of legal research planning and the end of this lesson you should be able to:Understand the basic steps for tackling a legal research down a research problem into manageable late the value of legal research , how do i make a plan? A basic research plan will break down your questions into specific research tasks, identify sources to use in your research, and begin to identify search are some examples of ways people approach legal research planning. The checklist format serves as a reminder of the considerations you should move through as you research. The checklist format also allows a researcher to easily assess what they have done so far--which is helpful so you do not waste time accidentally repeating your research. A checklist will, however, likely require a corollary log or some other method of note research guided researchers prefer a more guided tool, especially as they are first learning. A guided template is helpful during the planning phase, but can be utilized throughout the research process. While a guided template is very useful, every research problem is different and researchers must be prepared to deviate as needed. Legal research log is simply a record of where you have looked and what you have searched.

Keep track of the results and reassess and reevaluate your path along the research in a nutshell, pp. On on the process of legal article was written for legal practitioners in washington state. This except provides a basic understanding types of legal materials and the research research may have heard or read the phrase "legal research process" before. This phrase refers to the steps undertaken by a legal researcher in order to meet their research objective. While a singular phrase, legal research process, is often used to talk about research activities, there is no one process that is uniformly best every time for every problem. The order of these steps--or even the inclusion of a step--may vary depending on a variety of factors including how much you know before you start and the scope of the you will find the typical steps a legal researcher moves through as part of the research process. This means that, while these steps provide a solid path for approaching any legal research problem, the actual steps taken--or value of a given step--will example, if you are an experienced personal injury attorney researching in an area of law you know well you may spend less time on the beginning steps than a novice and organize your first step for any researcher should be to plan out your path. Spending just a little time on planning can be the key to efficient and effective research results. Untangle" the problem:Your research problem will often start as a cumbersome memo from a senior attorney or result from a mass of notes scribbled during a client interview. This stage it is also important to make sure you understand the scope of what you are being asked to do, the desired work product (deliverable), and any relevant time or money fy key knowledge gaps:Once the research problem has been broken into parts and the key issues have been identified, a broader picture will emerge. Take note of broad themes, key terms, and basic background areas you will need to an actual plan:It is not enough to simply think about what you will do--you need to keep a written plan. A research plan will identify where you need to go and what you need to gather, as well as keep track of where you have been. Look to the left-hand column of this page for more information about making a research you move through the preliminary stage of your plan be sure to keep notes, and continue to take notes along the way. It is likely you will need to refer back to them many commentary to define & understand attacking a research problem, begin with building on what you already know about the problem and its area of law. Background reading should help you confirm the appropriate jurisdiction for your legal issue, whether state or federal law applies, and identify the types of authority involved (i.

Resources are the best place to start, but to answer your legal question you will need to find the relevant primary authority. Likewise, if your prior reading revealed a term of art important to your topic try using an index or the topic and key number system to get ing and evaluating working with the finding tools you may still need to conduct some traditional searching in one of the legal databases. Keep in mind the value of controlling your search results with boolean searching and search back on our prior lessons for a refresher on the best practices for finding legal your research progresses you will likely come across new terms, or even new issues. It is important to take time throughout the research process to assess what you have done so far. If your research is being done in small time window, for example, a day, this is likely sufficient. If you are working on a project over several days or weeks, it is imperative that you take a moment when finished to ensure nothing has changed since you started the er, law is a living thing and constantly g when to stop is one of the toughest research skills to master. Of illinois law 792 s1: advanced legal ch planning & 792 s1: advanced legal research: research planning & ch planning & ation structure and secondary ements, uniform laws & model ss & tax page will provide you with an outline of legal research planning and the end of this lesson you should be able to:Understand the basic steps for tackling a legal research down a research problem into manageable late the value of legal research , how do i make a plan? Shepard's citator in lexis advanceusing keycite's citator in westlawnextusing headnotes in westlawnextusing headnotes in lexis is the "five step legal research process" page of the "summer legal research handbook" ate page for screenreader to page legal research legal research : 1l legal research, general legal research, law, legal research ces and tips for conducting legal research during the updated: oct 10, updatesemail step legal research secondary primary ing primary ative research sources of law step legal research steps of legal five step research process can be applied to almost any research project, but it’s important to remember that it is not a rigid flexible: sometimes you will get to step three and realize you have to go back and revise your research plan. Sometimes, it's easier to do steps 3 and 4(a) tely, the five steps provide structure for your research, and can help you when you don’t know where to go are the five steps. Analyze & organize one: formulate a research er the following preliminary questions:♦  legal question(s) that you need to answer     ♦  parties & the relationship between the parties     ♦  area(s) of law     ♦  jurisdiction     ♦  most relevant facts     ♦  legal terms of te search terms before you begin your research. Answer what you can, then move to step two: consult secondary ing on your familiarity with a particular area of law, you will consult different types of secondary you are unfamiliar with an area of law, consult general secondary sources such as:♦  legal encyclopedias (either state-specific, e. Cases lead you to authorities they rely upon – statutes, regulations, and other four: expand & update primary four has two parts: (a) expanding your research; and (b) updating the primary law that you’ve found to ensure that the law is still good law. A)  expand your research by looking at the cases that a case you've found cites to or that cite             to that case; by exploring relevant headnotes in the cases you’ve already found to find                 other cases that cite to that case for the law in that headnote; or by using the topic or                   key number system to find additional cases indexed under the same topic as a relevant             case. B)  update your research (using either shepard’s or keycite) to make sure that the cases,              statutes, and regulations you plan to use in your argument haven’t been overruled or              otherwise treated negatively; and to determine whether there is more recent case law              that discusses the same five: analyze & organize step 5, analyze your research (and, by extension, any arguments and drafts that you have started to write). If there are five factors in a               legal test, have i addressed all five factors?

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