The long chronology that represents the history of legal research can be summed up in one word: books. Westlaw Edge has redefined legal research. See how this can help your business. Lots of books. Series and series of books. Until recently, this meant “legal research.” Legal research is “the process of identifying and retrieving the information needed to support legal decision-making. In the broadest sense, legal research encompasses every step of an approach that begins with the analysis of the facts of a problem and ends with the application and communication of the results of the investigation. [1] Today, double-checking your work can be done by artificial intelligence (AI) without ever leaving your legal research platform. At the end of the day, you can`t stay indefinitely in the legal research of the past. The sooner you go in the future, the better the benefits. Let Westlaw Edge show you how.
Commercial services for legal research include primary and secondary sources. Commercial services can be country-specific, international or comparative. In 2010, commercial legal research tools generated an estimated $8 billion in revenue annually in the United States. [7] Although the digitization of legal research has been a monumental advance, the basic routine has remained largely the same, at least initially: important legal issues are identified and competent authorities are researched and analyzed. The shift to digitization did not mark the end of the evolution of legal research. As technology advances, so does legal research. And these advances have rejected changes in the nature of legal research itself. Legal research has evolved from mining online databases to providing relevant information.
And thanks to additional analysis and editorial advances, the information available is now better than before. Legal research is well known to take a lot of time and effort, and accessing online legal research databases can be expensive. Therefore, law firms and other practitioners may, with due regard to ethical concerns, turn to external legal research providers to outsource their legal research needs. [8] While we have focused on the benefits that these advances in legal research have for you, they are not exclusive to you. Legal research is conducted by anyone who needs legal information, including lawyers, legal librarians and paralegals. Sources of legal information range from printed books to free legal research websites (such as the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, Findlaw.com, Martindale Hubbell or CanLII) and information portals to paid database providers such as Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis, Westlaw, Lex Intell, VLex and Bloomberg Law. Law libraries around the world offer search services to help their clients find the legal information they need in law schools, law firms, and other research environments. Many libraries and legal institutions offer free access to legal information on the Internet, individually or through collective actions, such as the Open Access to Law Movement. Legal research now provides the answers to these questions and more, giving you the opportunity to prepare like never before. What happens if the authority you rely on is no longer valid? Traditional digital legal research platforms will let you know when a legal issue has been explicitly dismissed in a case, but if your agency relies on a previous authority that has been outvoted, you may not always know without doing manual research yourself.
Legal research processes vary by country and legal system. Legal research includes tasks such as:[2][3] Legal research has always been an integral part of legal practice. However, the definition of “legal research” has been anything but static over time, especially over the past two decades. What has changed and what does it mean for lawyers? Due to the amount of raw data that can now be analyzed by AI, the reach of legal research has expanded beyond its traditional boundaries. In other words, legal research is not limited to laws and court decisions. Even after completing the “official” search, today`s legal research technology has more to offer. What is your opposing lawyer`s experience in a particular topic? How successful are they on certain types of apps? Do you have a history with your judge? Some governments also provide access to certain resources through paid databases, such as the U.S. PACER legal system. How do you know how thorough you have been? How do you know that the authorities on which your argument is based are reliable? Knowing your judge`s inclinations will help you find the strongest argument and help you identify authority that you may have missed or that may be beneficial.
This means that your opponents have access to the same improvements and analysis. You can find any relevant authority and eradicate the bad; They can better understand the habits of their judges and those of their opposing defence lawyer, which is you. Knowing your judge`s habits outside the courtroom can help you set client expectations about the cost, timing and possible outcomes of the case. Even if clients don`t like bad news from their lawyers, they hate it even more when that bad news comes as a surprise. Books have been exchanged for computers, but lawyers are doing the same – but faster and with fewer headaches. Cisterns like KeyCite Overruling Risk do the heavy lifting for you using AI to identify bad laws without direct citations. Although many jurisdictions publish laws online[4], case law is often accessible through specialised online databases. [5] Open access services on the free rights movement include: Australasian Legal Information Institute, British and Irish Legal Information Institute, CanLII, Law Library Resource Xchange, Legal Information Institute, Lex Intell and LexML Brasil. As part of Google Scholar, Google offers a free and searchable database of federal and state case law. [6] For example, AI can better understand trends in a judge`s behaviour by analyzing his or her past decisions. Traditionally, you would ask another lawyer to review your work.
But not all lawyers have the luxury of having access to a colleague who is willing to invest their precious time to help. In addition, the risk of human error is always very real, even with a second pair of eyes. For example, with Quick Check on Westlaw Edge, you can upload a draft of your reasoning and the AI will safely analyze your document to get additional information or identify highly relevant authorities that might have been overlooked. The ability for your opposing lawyer to review an AI-generated profile of your trial history is just one way for an adversary to better understand you. And tools like Quick Check can also be used to scan another party`s briefing or memo for vulnerabilities. How often does a judge side with a plaintiff in your case? In your specific type of movement? What kind of arguments resonate with your judge? What kind of authority does the judge prefer? Imagine sitting in the courtroom and letting opposing counsel inform the judge of a verdict that was not included in your brief. It can be difficult to recover from this severe blow to your credibility. While this means you can use Quick Check to find flaws in your opponent`s arguments, the reverse is also true. Your opponents now have an easy-to-use tool to find an authority you`ve overlooked, or to find out if an authority your argument is based on is no longer valid. This kind of insight isn`t just available to your judge. If your opposing lawyer or their law firm has a history in the court system, you may be able to get data-driven analysis about them.