How To Jump Into Legal Research
First things first — what’s your assignment? I don’t just mean the issue, I also mean the constraints? Here’s a few things that I always bring up when someone gives me an assignment:
- Read back the issue to them (this may sound crazy, but it puts you and your assignor on the same page)
- How much time do they want you to contribute to the research? If you’re billing to a client, this is crucial. Have you ever billed 10 hours for a project that the assignor thought would be a quick-and-dirty two hourer…painful.
- What resources can you use? I had someone tell me that I couldn’t use Westlaw for research. Are they mad? See this post regarding use of BNA.
- Where should you start? Sometimes the assignor has a case in mind, or a statute, that’s a great starting point and can alleviate a half-hour of your crawling around in the dark.
Once that’s done, find the Bible. For every area of law there is a bible, a go-to book, treatise, or volume set that gives you a 10,000 foot view of an area of law. For patents it’s Chisum, for trademarks McCarthy’s, for copyright Nimmer, for New York law NY Jur, Federal law: Wright and Miller, and so on. Find the relevant bible, find the relevant area of knowledge, and get familiarized.
Once you’ve got some foundation, hit the web. Pull up some cases that are cited in the bible and then citation surf — find cases that are directly on point or closely on point and that are (a) at the highest court possible, or (b) have facts exactly similar to yours. This process could be a post in itself.
Make sure the cases you find are still good law.
If all else fails, try searching through law journal articles, web articles, or bar association articles. Not perfect, but it could be a good start.
Organize your research and report back.
