legal research
Studying court precedents
Legal research is the process of finding and analyzing laws, court decisions, regulations, and other legal authorities relevant to a specific question or case.
Lawyers and law students spend considerable time in legal research, consulting statutes, case law, and legal databases: The attorney conducted legal research before filing the motion.
The skill lies not just in finding relevant sources but in understanding how they interact and apply.
- case lawJudge-made legal doctrine
- statutesFormally enacted laws
- secondary sourcesMaterials analyzing original records
- bluebookTest-writing pamphlet for students
- LexisNexisLegal and news database
headnotes · digests · Boolean logic · constitutional law · constitutions · binding precedent · regulations · paralegal · jurisprudence · analytical reasoning · memorandum · treaties · footnotes · court opinions · dicta · jurisdiction · clerking · appellate
- legal skillsopening statement, closing argument, oral argument, cross-examination, voir dire
- legal websitesLegalZoom, LexisNexis, court opinions
- trial preptrial exhibits, witness prep, mock trial, witness list, voir dire
- lawlaw, lawyer, lawyers, attorney, attorneys
- legal systemattorney, landmark cases, criminal cases, lawyers, civil cases
- legal analysiscase law, precedent, statute, burden of proof, reasonable doubt
legal researchguesswork
Conclusions drawn without proof
speculation · conjecture · wild guess · making it up · intuition
legal researchscientific research
Systematic investigation for knowledge
medical research · market research · empirical research · historical research · laboratory research