Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving the information necessary to support legal decision-making.In the broadest sense, legal research includes every step of an action that begins with an analysis of the facts of the problem and ends with the application and communication of the results of the investigation. "
The legal research process varies according to the country and the legal system involved. However, legal research generally involves tasks such as:
- Find the primary source of law, or primary authority, within certain jurisdictions (cases, laws, regulations, etc.).
- Search for secondary authorities (eg, legal review, legal dictionary, legal treatise, and legal encyclopedias such as Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum America), for background information on legal topics.
- Search for non-legal sources for investigative or support information.
Legal research is conducted by anyone who needs legal information, including lawyers, legal librarians, and paralegals. Legal information sources range from printed books to free legal research sites (such as the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, Findlaw.com, Martindale Hubbell or CanLII) and information portals for cost database vendors such as Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law. Law libraries around the world provide research services to help their customers find the legal information they need in law schools, law firms and other research environments. Many libraries and legal institutions provide free access to legal information on the web, either individually or through collective action, such as with Free Access to the Legal Movement.
A number of books are available for those who wish to undertake legal research in the UK context.
Video Legal research
Database and software
Free use
Although many jurisdictions publish laws online, case law is often accessed through specialized online databases. Free access services, through free legal movement, include: Australasian Legal Information Institute, British and Irish Legal Information Institute, CanLII, Legal Information Institute, Brazilian LexML, World Legal Information Institute, Mindworks and Jurispedia.