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Legal Research 101: The Tools of the Trade

This lesson is intended as an introduction to the basic resources for researching the law and does not cover research methods using either print or online sources. References to print or computer-based resources are added for illustration and not comprehensiveness. Using a lawyer-under-construction theme, we take the law student on as an apprentice and introduce him or her to the basic tools of legal research. Legal Research 101: The Tools of the Trade is primarily intended for first year law students. It is most appropriate for law students during their first semester and would also be useful in paralegal studies. The lesson presumes no prior knowledge of how to do legal research. It is, therefore, not intended for the advanced legal researcher, except perhaps as a refresher.

Getting Started

Legal research expertise is a different skill than what you may have mastered as a researcher in other disciplines. Before you begin to learn about the various tools that you will use as an effective legal researcher, you must first become acquainted with the legal resource terrain. You begin your apprenticeship in the Examining the Blueprints part of the lesson. Here, you will discover three of the basic differences between legal research and many other types of research. These are:

(1) the crucial role of legal authority (versus other sources of legal information),

(2) the variety of approaches to legal research, and

(3) the importance of updating.

Once equipped with this basic knowledge, you can begin to get to know the sources of law - your tools of the trade - in the next part of the lesson.

Legal Authority

The first major difference between legal research and other kinds of research relates to the importance of legal authority. The print and digital resources in a law library are different than those in other libraries. Law libraries contain materials that have the actual laws. Sounds simple enough, right? What's often confusing is that law libraries also contain materials with explanations of law. These materials are not the actual laws (though they may quote from them), they just discuss those laws. To understand the difference between these two categories of law library materials, you must understand the types of resources which are generally considered authoritative in the legal world.

We'll begin to explore what types of materials constitute legal authority with a short problem.

As the previous problem illustrates, legal research sources are not all created equal. Some law sources are more authoritative than others. Generally speaking, law is created by a government official or government body acting in an official capacity. Legal authority may come from any of the three branches of government--case decisions from judges, statutes from legislatures, or regulations from executive branch agencies. When lawyers present a legal argument or explain a point of law, they refer to the actual laws issued by government authorities to support their discussion. This practice is known as referring to, or citing to, legal authority. Legal authority, the text of the law, is often called primary sources. Since primary sources of law are sometimes new to law students, they spend many hours during the first months of school becoming acquainted with them.

Secondary Sources

Law libraries and legal databases also include materials that are not primary legal authority. These materials are commentary that discuss, restate, interpret, explain, and refer to the actual law. While you may utilize them to gain an understanding of primary authority or to craft a persuasive argument, they are not mandatory in the same way that legal authority is binding. These sources include some that may be familiar to you, such as books, journal articles, and encyclopedias. They also include those which may be new to you, such as digests, citators, restatements, and ALR annotations. Law materials that are not the actual laws but discuss, restate, interpret, explain, and refer to them are known as secondary sources or commentary.

Quiz. You have been elected to a state court judgeship in your hometown. Which of the following should you consider as legal authority in a judicial matter before you? 

-Another judge's law journal article discussing her opinion of a particular law. No. A judge's scholarly writing might provide the attorneys appearing before her with valuable insight into how that judge might rule in a case. However, such publications, though written by a government official, are not considered legal authority. Only judicial writings produced in an official capacity, such as written opinions in a particular case, are generally considered authoritative.

- A statute passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor of your state. Yes. Judges may consider statutory law within their jurisdiction as authority if relevant to a particular case. The relevancy of the statutory law is, of course, determined by you as the sitting judge.

- Your Congressperson's statement on the floor of the House discussing a federal bill that later becomes law. No. While there may be some authoritative value to this statement, the better answer is "no." Opinions of the legislators who create our laws are sometimes considered valuable to the interpretation of those laws. This is because such opinions may explain the intentions of the legislators in creating those laws. Such opinions are considered part of the "legislative history" of a statute.

- A government agency's quasi-judicial decision in a legal matter before it. Yes. A government agency exercising the authority to adjudicate disputes coming before it creates law with its decisions in those matters. Such decisions can be cited as legal authority if relevant to a case.

- A law professor's oral argument in your court on a previous case. No. Statements by attorney are not considered legal authority. While an attorney's argument may be persuasive, it is not the law. Generally speaking, law is created by a government official or government body acting in an official and/or authorized capacity.