Importance of legal research

Doubt steven spielberg thought anyone watching lincoln would think about legal research, but that’s what happened to me. The proclamation was a war measure, he explains, but, without a war, questions about the legality of the proclamation and its effects will no doubt be raised. A constitutional amendment is the legal cure needed to settle the uncertainty and end slavery for i listened to lincoln explain his reasoning, i couldn’t help but think about legal research. In that way, legal research played a critical role in lincoln’s decision to pursue the 13th amendment despite heavy lincoln’s legal research didn’t include westlaw or lexis, its underlying principles of finding, understanding, and applying the law remain the same today.

Today’s lawyers continue to use legal research on a daily basis to prepare them to advise clients, negotiate with opposing counsel, or persuade a judge or ’ll experience the importance of legal research when a client seeks your help to modify a child custody order, to sue for misappropriation of trade secrets, or to defend them in an insider trading case. Performing good legal research in this way will provide you with the foundation you need to proceed confidently and achieve the best result for your e the importance of legal research in legal practice, i’m often surprised at how many first-year law students (and sometimes others) seem disinterested in the topic. Maybe i shouldn’t be surprised—legal research doesn’t hold the appeal of some topics, like constitutional or criminal law. Many students even have the mistaken notion that legal research is , whatever the reason for the initial lack of interest in legal research, something changes when law students head out to legal jobs during the summer.

In fact, the majority of law students i talk to spend the majority of their summer , while law students may or may not grow to love legal research, they do come to understand that it’s a critical skill they must acquire. In fact, upon returning from the summer, many of my former students remark that our legal research and writing class was by far the most helpful of their first year. I always wish they would have realized this earlier—and they do too—but better late than sooner you gain an appreciation for the importance of legal research the better. Good legal research, however, is much more than a research system; it’s a process.

Lawyer’s understanding and analysis of a case often begins in the research stage when she identifies the relevant facts and determines the legal issues that must be researched. As she finds seemingly relevant legal materials, she must understand them and how they apply to the facts of her case. This research provides a crucial analytical foundation that will inform her decisions for the remainder of the case. When viewed in this light, research can be seen not merely as a fleeting westlaw search, but as a critical, enduring component of representing a research seriously.

If you’re serious about getting yourself ready to practice competently, you need to be committed to developing your research skills. The more you put into these classes, the more you’ll get out of research seriously also means working on your research skills and knowledge outside a structured class. The truth is that there’s never enough time in a legal research class to cover everything—the intricacies of specialized areas, the latest databases, etc. Westlaw, lexis, and others also provide training, as well as a number of online tutorials that can be law library, as promoter of all things legal research, also likely has a blog, a twitter account, a facebook page or [enter new tool here] that keeps students up to date on new databases or legal research tips.

Keep track of these sources, or some from another library, and you’ll be surprised how much additional legal research knowledge you gain that will help you in school or at advanced legal research. Most law schools offer some sort of advanced or specialized legal research course as an elective. They are expert researchers who know about the latest legal resources and can teach you a lot about the legal research process. You’ll also get the chance to do a lot of research, which is critical to becoming a good researcher.

If you don’t practice researching now, you’ll be doing it at your job, which is where you’d be better off impressing than m lincoln’s quip about a book he read could easily be applied to legal research—“people who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. The truth is, however, that whether you like it or not, legal research is a critical part of lawyering. The url or doi link below will ensure access to this page research: the importance of legal t lawyer, vol. Doubt steven spielberg thought anyone watching "lincoln" would think about legal research, but that’s what happened to me.

As i listened to lincoln explain his reasoning for pursuing the 13th amendment, i couldn’t help but think about legal research. While lincoln’s legal research didn’t include westlaw or lexis, its underlying principles of finding, understanding, and applying the law remain the same today. Today’s lawyers continue to use legal research on a daily basis to prepare them to advise clients, negotiate with opposing counsel, or persuade a judge or jury. Written for student lawyer magazine, this column discusses the importance of legal research and provides some tips for developing an appreciation of legal research and improving research ds: legal research, importance, lincoln, legal nevers (contact author).

Reuben clark law school research paper ibe to this free journal for more curated articles on this journal is curated by:Annalee hickman moser at brigham young university - j.