Always gather the most important facts so you know “who, what, why, when, where and how” of your case. And take the time to write everything down, especially since you`ll probably need to include a statement of facts in any filing or briefing anyway. Even if you don`t think a fact might be relevant now, write it down because it may turn out to be relevant later. These facts will also be helpful in identifying your legal problem. Doctrinal or “black” legal research aims to explain, systematize and clarify the law on a particular subject through a distinctive mode of analysis. Legal research is the process of identifying and retrieving the information needed to support judicial 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. Legal research can initiate a new legal theory that can be traced back to your help in adopting the existing theory. The results of legal research can be useful in making desired changes to existing laws and legal institutions. Before you start researching laws and court opinions, you must first define the scope of your legal research project. There are several key questions you can use to do this. A seeker must be a true seeker of truth.
He must be vigilant to detect any change in the situation or facts taken into account in the research. He must have an intimate knowledge of his field of research. It must proceed objectively. Achieving objectivity remains a major challenge for any researcher. d) Comparison: Research compares different ideas, especially if they are contradictory. It develops the analytical skills of the researcher by providing different ways of approaching a particular problem. It also makes it possible to compare different sources, documents and even legal systems. This broadens the scope of the researcher`s thinking and helps him to discover more, clarify problems and broaden his general knowledge. Legal research is associated with costs.
Legal websites such as Manupatra, SCC Online are not available for free. You should spend more than a penny on these sites to access their features. However, several authentic websites offer easy ways to access legal research. This is covered in the last part of this article. In this section, the main objective is to give you some tips for conducting effective legal research. In daily practice, lawyers must identify and analyze facts, identify the legal context in which facts arise, identify legal issues, and apply relevant legal provisions to the facts. They must link key legal and factual issues and identify legal, factual and other issues raised in the documents. The normative aspect of legal research implies that; The researcher must not reproduce the text of the law or describe the jurisprudence of the theory; Rather, it should indicate what needs to be done from a legal perspective in a particular legal system or how the law is to be applied in a particular context. The results should not be influenced by personal biases in order to achieve objectivity in the research work. The researcher must study the issues at stake impartially and must be free of personal emotions and self-interest.
A researcher must be open-minded and think. He should also be wary of claims based on the results of his research. Objectivity remains the main aspect of quantitative research. Quantitative legal research is generally applicable to the conduct of non-doctrinal or empirical and social law research. The quantitative research method is complementary to traditional legal research to examine the complexities of law, legal actors and legal activities. What research does empirically is that it is based on observations of the world, in other words, data, which is just a term for facts about the world. These facts may be historical or contemporary, or based on legislation or jurisprudence, the results of interviews or surveys, or the results of secondary archival research or primary data collection. Research is an action that takes place in our daily lives, it is about how we get the answers to the questions we have. In terms of research processes, there are two main methods, qualitative and quantitative. Both of these methods are used by researchers to win. Qualitative legal research involves the study of general theoretical questions about the nature of laws and legal systems, the relationship of the right to justice and morality, and problems of law enforcement in a particular society. Black`s Law Dictionary defines legal research as “the research and gathering of authorities related to a legal question.” But what does that really mean? Essentially, this means that legal research is the process you use to identify and find laws, including laws, regulations, and court notices, that apply to the subject matter of your case.
