Legal research

Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and communication of the results of the investigation."^[1]

The processes of legal research vary according to the country and the legal system involved. Legal research involves tasks such as:^[2]

1. Finding primary sources of law, or primary authority, in a given jurisdiction. The main primary sources of law include constitutions, case law, statutes, and regulations.
2. Searching secondary authority for background information about legal topics. Secondary authorities can come in many forms, such as law reviews, legal dictionaries, legal treatises, and legal encyclopedias such as American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum.
3. Searching non-legal sources for investigative or supporting factual information.

Legal research is performed by anyone with a need for legal information, including lawyers, law librarians, and paralegals. Sources of legal information can include printed books, free legal research websites (like Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute, Findlaw.com, Martindale Hubbell, or CanLII), and websites or software providing paid access to legal research databases such as Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis, Westlaw, Lex Intell, VLex, and Bloomberg Law. Law libraries around the world provide research services to help their patrons in law schools, law firms, and other research environments find the legal information they need. Many law libraries and institutions provide free access to legal information on the web, either individually or via collective action, such as with the Free Access to Law Movement.