Where do lawyers do research for litigation?
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at
3:34 pm
Is there an online library or data base of case logs like there is for medical and scientific investigation (i.e. the Library of Medicine)?
Is there a online site that is publicly accessible? Website please.
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Filed under: Lawyer FAQ
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lexis nexis, it is a subscription only data base
they just google using lawyer jargon.
There are both law libraries and online databases for research. There are a few free databases, but they are clunky and not particularly efficient. Westlaw and Lexis are online fee based databases.
Paralegals usually do it for them. Where? It can be either an extensive law library, found in most court houses and in larger firms’ offices, or on special sites like Lexus and WestLaw on the internet. It depends what they’re after. If it’s statutes, they would look on the government printers’ sites. There’s oodles of places to look.
Yes, they can use Lexis Nexis, West Law, or some other electronic search tool to find relevant cases. Or if they don’t have a subscription to one of those, they can go to a law library and look in secondary sources like ALR’s, Law Review Articles, the Corpus Juris Secundum, or other sources to find links to relevant precedent cases. Once they get a case name, they go to the “case reporters” and look up the published case and read the facts, the holding, and the rationale to see if it can be used to synthesize facts in their case, or if it can be used to distinguish from their case. Then they have to Shephardize the cases they find, which means to look to see if the cases they found are still good law or if they have been overturned. It’s a long, and complicated process.