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How to do legal research in 3 steps

Knowing where to start a difficult legal research project can be a challenge. But if you already understand the basics of legal research, the process can be significantly easier — not to mention quicker.

Solid research skills are crucial to crafting a winning argument. So, whether you are a law school student or a seasoned attorney with years of experience, knowing how to perform legal research is important — including where to start and the steps to follow.

What is legal research, and where do I start? 

Black's Law Dictionary defines legal research as “[t]he finding and assembling of authorities that bear on a question of law." But what does that actually mean? It means that legal research is the process you use to identify and find the laws — including statutes, regulations, and court opinions — that apply to the facts of your case.

In most instances, the purpose of legal research is to find support for a specific legal issue or decision. For example, attorneys must conduct legal research if they need court opinions — that is, case law — to back up a legal argument they are making in a motion or brief filed with the court.

Alternatively, lawyers may need legal research to provide clients with accurate legal guidance . In the case of law students, they often use legal research to complete memos and briefs for class. But these are just a few situations in which legal research is necessary.

Why is legal research hard?

Each step — from defining research questions to synthesizing findings — demands critical thinking and rigorous analysis.

1. Identifying the legal issue is not so straightforward. Legal research involves interpreting many legal precedents and theories to justify your questions. Finding the right issue takes time and patience.

2. There's too much to research. Attorneys now face a great deal of case law and statutory material. The sheer volume forces the researcher to be efficient by following a methodology based on a solid foundation of legal knowledge and principles.

3. The law is a fluid doctrine. It changes with time, and staying updated with the latest legal codes, precedents, and statutes means the most resourceful lawyer needs to assess the relevance and importance of new decisions.

Legal research can pose quite a challenge, but professionals can improve it at every stage of the process . 

Step 1: Key questions to ask yourself when starting legal research

Before you begin looking for laws and court opinions, you first need to define the scope of your legal research project. There are several key questions you can use to help do this.

What are the facts?

Always gather the essential facts so you know the “who, what, why, when, where, and how” of your case. Take the time to write everything down, especially since you will likely need to include a statement of facts in an eventual filing or brief anyway. Even if you don't think a fact may be relevant now, write it down because it may be relevant later. These facts will also be helpful when identifying your legal issue.

What is the actual legal issue?

You will never know what to research if you don't know what your legal issue is. Does your client need help collecting money from an insurance company following a car accident involving a negligent driver? How about a criminal case involving excluding evidence found during an alleged illegal stop?

No matter the legal research project, you must identify the relevant legal problem and the outcome or relief sought. This information will guide your research so you can stay focused and on topic.

What is the relevant jurisdiction?

Don't cast your net too wide regarding legal research; you should focus on the relevant jurisdiction. For example, does your case deal with federal or state law? If it is state law, which state? You may find a case in California state court that is precisely on point, but it won't be beneficial if your legal project involves New York law.

Where to start legal research: The library, online, or even AI?

In years past, future attorneys were trained in law school to perform research in the library. But now, you can find almost everything from the library — and more — online. While you can certainly still use the library if you want, you will probably be costing yourself valuable time if you do.

When it comes to online research, some people start with free legal research options , including search engines like Google or Bing. But to ensure your legal research is comprehensive, you will want to use an online research service designed specifically for the law, such as Westlaw . Not only do online solutions like Westlaw have all the legal sources you need, but they also include artificial intelligence research features that help make quick work of your research

Step 2: How to find relevant case law and other primary sources of law

Now that you have gathered the facts and know your legal issue, the next step is knowing what to look for. After all, you will need the law to support your legal argument, whether providing guidance to a client or writing an internal memo, brief, or some other legal document.

But what type of law do you need? The answer: primary sources of law. Some of the more important types of primary law include:

• Case law, which are court opinions or decisions issued by federal or state courts
• Statutes, including legislation passed by both the U.S. Congress and state lawmakers
• Regulations, including those issued by either federal or state agencies
• Constitutions, both federal and state

Searching for primary sources of law

So, if it's primary law you want, it makes sense to begin searching there first, right? Not so fast. While you will need primary sources of law to support your case, in many instances, it is much easier — and a more efficient use of your time — to begin your search with secondary sources such as practice guides, treatises, and legal articles.

Why? Because secondary sources provide a thorough overview of legal topics, meaning you don't have to start your research from scratch. After secondary sources, you can move on to primary sources of law.

For example, while no two legal research projects are the same, the order in which you will want to search different types of sources may look something like this:

• Secondary sources . If you are researching a new legal principle or an unfamiliar area of the law, the best place to start is secondary sources, including law journals, practice guides , legal encyclopedias, and treatises. They are a good jumping-off point for legal research since they've already done the work for you. As an added bonus, they can save you additional time since they often identify and cite important statutes and seminal cases.
• Case law . If you have already found some case law in secondary sources, great, you have something to work with. But if not, don't fret. You can still search for relevant case law in a variety of ways, including running a search in a case law research tool.

Once you find a helpful case, you can use it to find others. For example, in Westlaw, most cases contain headnotes that summarize each of the case's important legal issues. These headnotes are also assigned a Key Number based on the topic associated with that legal issue. So, once you find a good case, you can use the headnotes and Key Numbers within it to quickly find more relevant case law.

• Statutes and regulations . In many instances, secondary sources and case law list the statutes and regulations relevant to your legal issue. But if you haven't found anything yet, you can still search for statutes and regs online like you do with cases.

Once you know which statute or reg is pertinent to your case, pull up the annotated version on Westlaw. Why the annotated version? Because the annotations will include vital information, such as a list of important cases that cite your statute or reg. Sometimes, these cases are even organized by topic — just one more way to find the case law you need to support your legal argument.

Keep in mind, though, that legal research isn't always a linear process. You may start out going from source to source as outlined above and then find yourself needing to go back to secondary sources once you have a better grasp of the legal issue. In other instances, you may even find the answer you are looking for in a source not listed above, like a sample brief filed with the court by another attorney. Ultimately, you need to go where the information takes you.

Step 3: Make sure you are using ‘good’ law

One of the most important steps with every legal research project is to verify that you are using “good" law — meaning a court hasn't invalidated it or struck it down in some way. After all, it probably won't look good to a judge if you cite a case that has been overruled or use a statute deemed unconstitutional. It doesn't necessarily mean you can never cite these sources; you just need to take a closer look before you do.

The simplest way to find out if something is still good law is to use a legal tool known as a citator, which will show you subsequent cases that have cited your source as well as any negative history, including if it has been overruled, reversed, questioned, or merely differentiated.

For instance, if a case, statute, or regulation has any negative history — and therefore may no longer be good law — KeyCite, the citator on Westlaw, will warn you. Specifically, KeyCite will show a flag or icon at the top of the document, along with a little blurb about the negative history. This alert system allows you to quickly know if there may be anything you need to worry about.

Some examples of these flags and icons include:

• A red flag on a case warns you it is no longer good for at least one point of law, meaning it may have been overruled or reversed on appeal.
• A yellow flag on a case warns that it has some negative history but is not expressly overruled or reversed, meaning another court may have criticized it or pointed out the holding was limited to a specific fact pattern.
• A blue-striped flag on a case warns you that it has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. Court of Appeals.
• The KeyCite Overruling Risk icon on a case warns you that the case may be implicitly undermined because it relies on another case that has been overruled.

Another bonus of using a citator like KeyCite is that it also provides a list of other cases that merely cite your source — it can lead to additional sources you previously didn't know about.

Perseverance is vital when it comes to legal research

Given that legal research is a complex process, it will likely come as no surprise that this guide cannot provide everything you need to know.

There is a reason why there are entire law school courses and countless books focused solely on legal research methodology. In fact, many attorneys will spend their entire careers honing their research skills — and even then, they may not have perfected the process.

So, if you are just beginning, don't get discouraged if you find legal research difficult — almost everyone does at first. With enough time, patience, and dedication, you can master the art of legal research.

Thomson Reuters originally published this article on November 10, 2020.

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Legal Research Strategy

Preliminary analysis, organization, secondary sources, primary sources, updating research, identifying an end point, getting help, about this guide.

This guide will walk a beginning researcher though the legal research process step-by-step. These materials are created with the 1L Legal Research & Writing course in mind. However, these resources will also assist upper-level students engaged in any legal research project.

How to Strategize

Legal research must be comprehensive and precise.  One contrary source that you miss may invalidate other sources you plan to rely on.  Sticking to a strategy will save you time, ensure completeness, and improve your work product. 

Follow These Steps

Running Time: 3 minutes, 13 seconds.

Make sure that you don't miss any steps by using our:

• Legal Research Strategy Checklist

If you get stuck at any time during the process, check this out:

• Ten Tips for Moving Beyond the Brick Wall in the Legal Research Process, by Marsha L. Baum

Understanding the Legal Questions

A legal question often originates as a problem or story about a series of events. In law school, these stories are called fact patterns. In practice, facts may arise from a manager or an interview with a potential client. Start by doing the following:

• Read anything you have been given
• Analyze the facts and frame the legal issues
• Assess what you know and need to learn
• Note the jurisdiction and any primary law you have been given
• Generate potential search terms

Jurisdiction

Legal rules will vary depending on where geographically your legal question will be answered. You must determine the jurisdiction in which your claim will be heard. These resources can help you learn more about jurisdiction and how it is determined:

• Legal Treatises on Jurisdiction
• LII Wex Entry on Jurisdiction

This map indicates which states are in each federal appellate circuit:

Getting Started

Once you have begun your research, you will need to keep track of your work. Logging your research will help you to avoid missing sources and explain your research strategy. You will likely be asked to explain your research process when in practice. Researchers can keep paper logs, folders on Westlaw or Lexis, or online citation management platforms.

Organizational Methods

Tracking with paper or excel.

Many researchers create their own tracking charts.  Be sure to include:

• Search Date
• Topics/Keywords/Search Strategy
• Citation to Relevant Source Found
• Save Locations
• Follow Up Needed

Consider using the following research log as a starting place: 

• Sample Research Log

Tracking with Folders

Westlaw and Lexis offer options to create folders, then save and organize your materials there.

• Lexis Advance Folders
• Westlaw Edge Folders

Tracking with Citation Management Software

For long term projects, platforms such as Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, or Refworks might be useful. These are good tools to keep your research well organized. Note, however, that none of these platforms substitute for doing your own proper Bluebook citations. Learn more about citation management software on our other research guides:

• Guide to Zotero for Harvard Law Students by Harvard Law School Library Research Services Last Updated Aug 9, 2024 521 views this year
• Zotero by Daniel Becker Last Updated Oct 3, 2024 36225 views this year

Types of Sources

There are three different types of sources: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.  When doing legal research you will be using mostly primary and secondary sources.  We will explore these different types of sources in the sections below.

Secondary sources often explain legal principles more thoroughly than a single case or statute. Starting with them can help you save time.

Secondary sources are particularly useful for:

• Learning the basics of a particular area of law
• Understanding key terms of art in an area
• Identifying essential cases and statutes

Consider the following when deciding which type of secondary source is right for you:

• Scope/Breadth
• Depth of Treatment
• Currentness/Reliability

For a deep dive into secondary sources visit:

• Secondary Sources: ALRs, Encyclopedias, Law Reviews, Restatements, & Treatises by Catherine Biondo Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 9081 views this year

Legal Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Legal dictionaries.

Legal dictionaries are similar to other dictionaries that you have likely used before.

• Black's Law Dictionary
• Ballentine's Law Dictionary

Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias contain brief, broad summaries of legal topics, providing introductions and explaining terms of art. They also provide citations to primary law and relevant major law review articles.  

Here are the two major national encyclopedias:

• American Jurisprudence (AmJur) (Westlaw)
• American Jurisprudence (Lexis)
• Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS)

Treatises are books on legal topics.  These books are a good place to begin your research.  They provide explanation, analysis, and citations to the most relevant primary sources. Treatises range from single subject overviews to deep treatments of broad subject areas.

It is important to check the date when the treatise was published. Many are either not updated, or are updated through the release of newer editions.

To find a relevant treatise explore:

• Legal Treatises by Subject by Catherine Biondo Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 7722 views this year

American Law Reports (ALR)

American Law Reports (ALR) contains in-depth articles on narrow topics of the law. ALR articles, are often called annotations. They provide background, analysis, and citations to relevant cases, statutes, articles, and other annotations. ALR annotations are invaluable tools to quickly find primary law on narrow legal questions.

This resource is available in both Westlaw and Lexis:

• American Law Reports on Westlaw (includes index)
• American Law Reports on Lexis

Law Reviews & Journals

Law reviews are scholarly publications, usually edited by law students in conjunction with faculty members. They contain both lengthy articles and shorter essays by professors and lawyers. They also contain comments, notes, or developments in the law written by law students. Articles often focus on new or emerging areas of law and may offer critical commentary. Some law reviews are dedicated to a particular topic while others are general. Occasionally, law reviews will include issues devoted to proceedings of panels and symposia.

Law review and journal articles are extremely narrow and deep with extensive references. 

To find law review articles visit:

• Law Journal Library on HeinOnline
• Law Reviews & Journals on LexisNexis
• Law Reviews & Journals on Westlaw

Restatements

Restatements are highly regarded distillations of common law, prepared by the American Law Institute (ALI). ALI is a prestigious organization comprised of judges, professors, and lawyers. They distill the "black letter law" from cases to indicate trends in common law. Resulting in a “restatement” of existing common law into a series of principles or rules. Occasionally, they make recommendations on what a rule of law should be.

Restatements are not primary law. However, they are considered persuasive authority by many courts.

Restatements are organized into chapters, titles, and sections.  Sections contain the following:

• a concisely stated rule of law,
• comments to clarify the rule,
• hypothetical examples,
• explanation of purpose, and
• exceptions to the rule  

To access restatements visit:

• American Law Institute Library on HeinOnline
• Restatements & Principles of the Law on LexisNexis
• Restatements & Principles of Law on Westlaw

Primary Authority

Primary authority is "authority that issues directly from a law-making body."   Authority , Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).   Sources of primary authority include:

• Constitutions
• Statutes 

Regulations

Access to primary legal sources is available through:

• Bloomberg Law
• Free & Low Cost Alternatives

Statutes (also called legislation) are "laws enacted by legislative bodies", such as Congress and state legislatures.  Statute , Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).

We typically start primary law research here. If there is a controlling statute, cases you look for later will interpret that law. There are two types of statutes, annotated and unannotated.

Annotated codes are a great place to start your research. They combine statutory language with citations to cases, regulations, secondary sources, and other relevant statutes. This can quickly connect you to the most relevant cases related to a particular law. Unannotated Codes provide only the text of the statute without editorial additions. Unannotated codes, however, are more often considered official and used for citation purposes.

For a deep dive on federal and state statutes, visit:

• Statutes: US and State Codes by Mindy Kent Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 6204 views this year
• 50 State Surveys

Want to learn more about the history or legislative intent of a law?  Learn how to get started here:

• Legislative History Get an introduction to legislative histories in less than 5 minutes.
• Federal Legislative History Research Guide

Regulations are rules made by executive departments and agencies. Not every legal question will require you to search regulations. However, many areas of law are affected by regulations. So make sure not to skip this step if they are relevant to your question.

To learn more about working with regulations, visit:

• Administrative Law Research by AJ Blechner Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 1043 views this year

Case Basics

In many areas, finding relevant caselaw will comprise a significant part of your research. This Is particularly true in legal areas that rely heavily on common law principles.

Running Time: 3 minutes, 10 seconds.

Unpublished Cases

Up to  86% of federal case opinions are unpublished. You must determine whether your jurisdiction will consider these unpublished cases as persuasive authority. The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure have an overarching rule, Rule 32.1  Each circuit also has local rules regarding citations to unpublished opinions. You must understand both the Federal Rule and the rule in your jurisdiction.

• Federal and Local Rules of Appellate Procedure 32.1 (Dec. 2021).
• Type of Opinion or Order Filed in Cases Terminated on the Merits, by Circuit (Sept. 2021).

Each state also has its own local rules which can often be accessed through:

• State Bar Associations
• State Courts Websites

First Circuit

• First Circuit Court Rule 32.1.0

Second Circuit

• Second Circuit Court Rule 32.1.1

Third Circuit

• Third Circuit Court Rule 5.7

Fourth Circuit

• Fourth Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Fifth Circuit

• Fifth Circuit Court Rule 47.5

Sixth Circuit

• Sixth Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Seventh Circuit

• Seventh Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Eighth Circuit

• Eighth Circuit Court Rule 32.1A

Ninth Circuit

• Ninth Circuit Court Rule 36-3

Tenth Circuit

• Tenth Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Eleventh Circuit

• Eleventh Circuit Court Rule 32.1

D.C. Circuit

• D.C. Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Federal Circuit

• Federal Circuit Court Rule 32.1

Finding Cases

Headnotes show the key legal points in a case. Legal databases use these headnotes to guide researchers to other cases on the same topic. They also use them to organize concepts explored in cases by subject. Publishers, like Westlaw and Lexis, create headnotes, so they are not consistent across databases.

Headnotes are organized by subject into an outline that allows you to search by subject. This outline is known as a "digest of cases." By browsing or searching the digest you can retrieve all headnotes covering a particular topic. This can help you identify particularly important cases on the relevant subject.

Running Time: 4 minutes, 43 seconds.

Each major legal database has its own digest:

• Topic Navigator (Lexis)
• Key Digest System (Westlaw)

Start by identifying a relevant topic in a digest.  Then you can limit those results to your jurisdiction for more relevant results.  Sometimes, you can keyword search within only the results on your topic in your jurisdiction.  This is a particularly powerful research method.

One Good Case Method

After following the steps above, you will have identified some relevant cases on your topic. You can use good cases you find to locate other cases addressing the same topic. These other cases often apply similar rules to a range of diverse fact patterns.

• in Lexis click "More Like This Headnote"
• in Westlaw click "Cases that Cite This Headnote"

to focus on the terms of art or key words in a particular headnote. You can use this feature to find more cases with similar language and concepts.  ​

Ways to Use Citators

A citator is "a catalogued list of cases, statutes, and other legal sources showing the subsequent history and current precedential value of those sources.  Citators allow researchers to verify the authority of a precedent and to find additional sources relating to a given subject." Citator , Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).

Each major legal database has its own citator.  The two most popular are Keycite on Westlaw and Shepard's on Lexis.

• Keycite Information Page
• Shepard's Information Page

Making Sure Your Case is Still Good Law

This video answers common questions about citators:

For step-by-step instructions on how to use Keycite and Shepard's see the following:

Additional Shepard's Resources

• Shepard's Video Tutorial
• Shepard's Handout
• Shepard's Editorial Phrase Dictionary
• Shepard's Signal Indicators & Analysis Phrases
• Shepard's Citation Services User Guide
• Lexis+ Support and Training Additional online videos and handouts for Lexis+.

Additional KeyCite Resources

• How to Ensure I'm Citing Good Law (Westlaw Video)
• KeyCite Handout
• KeyCite Editorial Phrase Dictionary
• Understanding Next Generation KeyCite
• How to Check the Status of a Case with KeyCite
• Westlaw Precision Support Additional videos and handouts to support your Westlaw research.

Using Citators For

Citators serve three purposes: (1) case validation, (2) better understanding, and (3) additional research.

Case Validation

Is my case or statute good law?

• Parallel citations
• Prior and subsequent history
• Negative treatment suggesting you should no longer cite to holding.

Better Understanding

Has the law in this area changed?

• Later cases on the same point of law
• Positive treatment, explaining or expanding the law.
• Negative Treatment, narrowing or distinguishing the law.

Track Research

Who is citing and writing about my case or statute?

• Secondary sources that discuss your case or statute.
• Cases in other jurisdictions that discuss your case or statute.

Knowing When to Start Writing

For more guidance on when to stop your research see:

• Terminating Research, by Christina L. Kunz

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• Last Updated: Aug 27, 2024 5:19 PM
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Essential Legal Research Skills for Law Students: Case Law

• What You Need to Know About the Library
• Regulations
• Secondary Sources
• Bluebooking
• Legal Writing, Formatting Options, and Citation
• Federal Courts
• New York State Courts
• Finding Case Law
• One Good Case Method
• West Headnotes

From the Federal Judiciary website:

"The Judicial Branch has two court systems: federal and state. While each hears certain types of cases, neither is completely independent of the other. The two systems often interact and share the goal of fairly handling legal issues.

The U.S. Constitution created a governmental structure known as federalism that calls for the sharing of powers between the national and state governments. The Constitution gives certain powers to the federal government and reserves the rest for the states.

The federal court system deals with legal issues expressly or implicitly granted to it by the  U.S. Constitution . The state court systems deal with their respective state constitutions and the legal issues that the U.S. Constitution did not give to the federal government or explicitly deny to the states.

For example, because the Constitution gives Congress sole authority to make uniform laws concerning bankruptcies, a state court would lack jurisdiction. Likewise, since the Constitution does not give the federal government authority in most family law matters, a federal court would lack jurisdiction in a divorce case."

As in the federal court system,  New York's court system  is three tier, consisting of trial courts, intermediate appellate courts, and the highest court. In New York the trial court is called the Supreme Court, the intermediate court is called Appellate Division, and New York's highest court is the Court of Appeals.

Reported decisions from the trial courts are published in an official reporter called the Miscellaneous Reports (Misc.), currently in its third series. 

Reported decisions from the intermediate courts, New York Appellate Divisions, are published in an official reporter called the Appellate Division Reports (A.D.), currently in its third series. 

Reported decisions from the highest court of New York, the New York Court of Appeals, are published in an official reporter called the New York Reports (N.Y.), currently in its third series. New York Court of Appeals reported decisions are also published in a regional reporter, the North Eastern Reporter (N.E.), currently in its third series and published by Thomson Reuters. 

Reported decisions from all three New York court levels are published in an unofficial reporter called the New York Supplement (N.Y.S.), currently in its third series and published by Thomson Reuters.

• New York State Courts: An Introductory Guide Introduction to the New York State court system.
• New York Case Citations

To locate applicable case law, try:

• Secondary sources include cross-references to primary sources, such as case law
• Consult footnotes, tables of authorities, endnotes, references, and in-text citations
• Westlaw, Lexis, Google Scholar, and Fastcase are all examples of legal databases where you can search for case law. Some are free, some are low cost, and some charge per hour or transaction
• West topics and key numbers, a proprietary system created by West, provides subject access to case law. It is used to expand your research when you use the "one good case method" of legal research
• KeyCite on Westlaw and Shepard's on Lexis are examples of citators. Citators are used to validate (determine whether a particular case is still good law) and expand legal research 
• Pace Law Library Guide to Case Citations Includes details on which court decisions are cited in each of the West regional reporters, federal reporters, and N.Y. state reporters.
• The Art of Selecting Cases to Cite Short article by Douglas K. Norman, 63 Tex. B.J. 340 (2000).
• How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students This essay by Orin S. Kerr is designed to help new law students prepare for the first few weeks of class. It explains what judicial opinions are, how they are structured, and what law students should look for when reading them.

The  One Good Case Method  of legal research starts with finding one good case - a case that is on point.

• By using that case's applicable headnotes you can expand your research. Understanding the headnote system and knowing how to use it can be a powerful tool for legal research. West headnotes are consistent across all U.S. jurisdictions. Thus, you may identify a point of law summarized in headnote from a case in one jurisdiction and use that headnote to find similar cases in a different jurisdiction.  Headnotes allow for cross-jurisdictional research . 
• Use KeyCite, Shepard's, or BCite to find cases that have cited your one good case.

A  citator  is a tool that helps you determine what happened to your case, statute, or regulation after it was released: appeals of cases, amendment or repeal of statutes and regulations. The major online citators are  Shepard's (available on Lexis ) and KeyCite  (available on Westlaw) .

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• Last Updated: May 9, 2024 9:18 AM
• URL: https://libraryguides.law.pace.edu/researchskills

How to Conduct Legal Research

IN THIS ARTICLE

Where do I begin my legal research?

What if i’m new to the practice area or specific legal issue, how do i respond to the opposing side’s brief, how can legal research help with drafting or strategy, how do i validate case law citations, how should i use technology to improve my legal research.

[Learn more about Bloomberg Law’s complete legal research resource – enabling smarter, faster decisions and confident action for your clients, practice, and organization.]

Conducting legal research can challenge even the most skilled law practitioners.

As laws evolve across jurisdictions, it can be a difficult to keep pace with every legal development. Equally daunting is the ability to track and glean insights into stakeholder strategies and legal responses. Without quick and easy access to the right tools, the legal research upon which case strategy hinges may face cost, personnel, and litigation outcome challenges.

Bloomberg Law’s artificial intelligence-driven tools drastically reduce the time to perform legal research. Whether you seek quick answers to legal research definitions, or general guidance on the legal research process, Bloomberg Law’s Core Litigation Skills Toolkit has you covered.

What is legal research?

Legal research is the process of uncovering and understanding all of the legal precedents, laws, regulations, and other legal authorities that apply in a case and inform an attorney’s course of action.

Legal research often involves case law research, which is the practice of identifying and interpreting the most relevant cases concerning the topic at issue. Legal research can also involve a deep dive into a judge’s past rulings or opposing counsel’s record of success.

Research is not a process that has a finite start and end, but remains ongoing throughout every phase of a legal matter. It is a cornerstone of a litigator’s skills.

[Learn how our integrated, time-saving litigation research tools allow litigators to streamline their work and get answers quickly.]

Beginning your legal research will look different for each assignment. At the outset, ensure that you understand your goal by asking questions and taking careful notes. Ask about background case information, logistical issues such as filing deadlines, the client/matter number, and billing instructions.

It’s also important to consider how your legal research will be used. Is the research to be used for a pending motion? If you are helping with a motion for summary judgment, for example, your goal is to find cases that are in the same procedural posture as yours and come out favorably for your side (i.e., if your client is the one filing the motion, try to find cases where a motion for summary judgment was granted, not denied). Keep in mind the burden of proof for different kinds of motions.

Finally, but no less important, assess the key facts of the case. Who are the relevant parties? Where is the jurisdiction? Who is the judge? Note all case details that come to mind.

While conducting legal research, it is easy to go down rabbit holes. Resist the urge to start by reviewing individual cases, which may prove irrelevant. Start instead with secondary sources, which often provide a prevailing statement of the law for a specific topic. These sources will save time and orient you to the area of the law and key issues.

Litigation Practical Guidance provides the essentials including step-by-step guidance, expert legal analysis, and a preview of next steps. Source citations are included in all Practical Guidance, and you can filter Points of Law, Smart Code®, and court opinions searches to get the jurisdiction-specific cases or statutes you need.

Searching across Points of Law will help to get your bearings on an issue before diving into reading the cases in full. Points of Law uses machine learning to identify key legal principles expressed in court opinions, which are easily searchable by keyword and jurisdiction. This tool helps you quickly find other cases that have expressed the same Point of Law, and directs you to related Points of Law that might be relevant to your research. It is automatically updated with the most recent opinions, saving you time and helping you quickly drill down to the relevant cases.

• Address your litigation research needs – day or night

No matter when you’re working, we’ve got the smarter, faster resources you need, including faster case law research, complete dockets access, and 24/7 expert support.

Whether a brief is yours or that of the opposing party, Bloomberg Law’s Brief Analyzer is an essential component in the legal research process. It reduces the time spent analyzing a brief, identifying relevant authorities, and preparing a solid response.

To start, navigate to Brief Analyzer available from the Bloomberg Law homepage, within the Litigation Intelligence Center , or from Docket Key search results for briefs.

[ How to Write a Legal Brief – Learn how to shorten the legal research cycle and give your legal brief a competitive advantage.]

How to optimize your search.

Crafting searches is a critical skill when it comes to legal research. Although many legal research platforms, including Bloomberg Law, offer natural language searching, terms and connectors (also called Boolean) searching is still a vital legal research skill and should be used when searching across court opinions, dockets, Points of Law, and other primary and secondary sources.

When you conduct a natural language search, the search engine applies algorithms to rank your results. Why a certain case is ranked as it is may not be obvious. This makes it harder to interpret whether the search is giving you everything you need. It is also harder to efficiently and effectively manipulate your search terms to zero in on the results you want. Using Boolean searching gives you better control over your search and greater confidence in your results.

The good news? Bloomberg Law does not charge by the search for court opinion searches. If your initial search was much too broad or much too narrow, you do not have to worry about immediately running a new and improved search.

Follow these tips when beginning a search to ensure that you do not miss relevant materials:

• Make sure you do not have typos in your search string.
• Search the appropriate source or section of the research platform. It is possible to search only within a practice area, jurisdiction, secondary resource, or other grouping of materials.
• Make sure you know which terms and connectors are utilized by the platform you are working on and what they mean – there is no uniform standard set of terms of connectors utilized by all platforms.
• Include in your search all possible terms the court might use, or alternate ways the court may address an issue. It is best to group the alternatives together within a parenthetical, connected by OR between each term.
• Consider including single and multiple character wildcards when relevant. Using a single character wildcard (an asterisk) and/or a multiple character wildcard (an exclamation point) helps you capture all word variations – even those you might not have envisioned.
• Try using a tool that helps you find additional relevant case law. When you find relevant authority, use BCITE on Bloomberg Law to find all other cases and/or sources that cite back to that case. When in BCITE, click on the Citing Documents tab, and search by keyword to narrow the results. Alternatively, you can use the court’s language or ruling to search Points of Law and find other cases that addressed the same issue or reached the same ruling.

[Bloomberg Law subscribers can access a complete checklist of search term best practices . Not a subscriber? Request a Demo .]

Before drafting a motion or brief, search for examples of what firm lawyers filed with the court in similar cases. You can likely find recent examples in your firm’s internal document system or search Bloomberg Law’s dockets. If possible, look for things filed before the same judge so you can get a quick check on rules/procedures to be followed (and by the same partner when possible so you can get an idea of their style preferences).

Careful docket search provides a wealth of information about relevant cases, jurisdictions, judges, and opposing counsel. On Bloomberg Law, type “Dockets Search” in the Go bar or find the dockets search box in the Litigation Intelligence Center .

If you do not know the specific docket number and/or court, use the docket search functionality Docket Key . Select from any of 20 categories, including motions, briefs, and orders, across all 94 federal district courts, to pinpoint the exact filing of choice.

Dockets can also help you access lots of information to guide your case strategy. For example, if you are considering filing a particular type of motion, such as a sanctions motion, you can use dockets to help determine how frequently your judge grants sanctions motions. You can also use dockets to see how similar cases before your judge proceeded through discovery.

If you are researching expert witnesses, you can use dockets to help determine if the expert has been recently excluded from a case, or whether their opinion has been limited. If so, this will help you determine whether the expert is a good fit for your case.

Dockets are a powerful research tool that allow you to search across filings to support your argument. Stay apprised of docket updates with the “Create Alert” option on Bloomberg Law.

Writing a research memo? Here’s a how-to guide.

Bloomberg Law subscribers can access our expert-written guide on writing a research memo, authored by Aaron Goodman, Of Counsel at Baker McKenzie.

Not a subscriber? Request a demo

Dive deeper into competitive research.

For even more competitive research insights, dive into Bloomberg Law’s Litigation Analytics – this is available in the Litigation tab on the homepage. Data here helps attorneys develop litigation strategy, predict possible outcomes, and better advise clients.

To start, under Litigation Analytics , leverage the Attorney tab to view case history and preview legal strategies the opposition may practice against you. Also, within Litigation Analytics, use the Court tab to get aggregate motion and appeal outcome rates across all federal courts, with the option to run comparisons across jurisdictions, and filter by company, law firm, and attorney.

Use the Judge tab to glean insights from cited opinions, and past and current decisions by motion and appeal outcomes. Also view litigation analytics in the right rail of court opinions.

Docket search can also offer intel on your opponent. Has your opponent filed similar lawsuits or made similar arguments before? How did those cases pan out? You can learn a lot about an opponent from past appearances in court.

Checking the status of case law is essential in legal research. Rely on Bloomberg Law’s proprietary citator, BCITE. This time-saving tool lets you know if a case is still good law.

Under each court opinion, simply look to the right rail. There, you will see a thumbnail icon for “BCITE Analysis.” Click on the icon, and you will be provided quick links to direct history (opinions that affect or are affected by the outcome of the case at issue); case analysis (citing cases, with filter and search options), table of authorities, and citing documents.

A significant benefit of digital research platforms and analytics is increased efficiency. Modern legal research technology helps attorneys sift through thousands of cases quickly and comprehensively. These products can also help aggregate or summarize data in a way that is more useful and make associations instantaneously.

For example, before litigation analytics were common, a partner may have asked a junior associate to find all summary judgment motions ruled on by a specific judge to determine how often that judge grants or denies them. The attorney could have done so by manually searching over PACER and/or by searching through court opinions, but that would take a long time. Now, Litigation Analytics can aggregate that data and provide an answer in seconds. Understanding that such products exist can be a game changer. Automating parts of the research process frees up time and effort for other activities that benefit the client and makes legal research and writing more efficient.

[Read our article: Six ways legal technology aids your litigation workflow .]

Tools like  Points of Law ,  dockets  and  Brief Analyzer  can also increase efficiency, especially when narrowing your research to confirm that you found everything on point. In the past, attorneys had to spend many hours (and lots of money) running multiple court opinion searches to ensure they did not miss a case on point. Now, there are tools that can dramatically speed up that process. For example, running a search over Points of Law can immediately direct you to other cases that discuss that same legal principle.

However, it’s important to remember that digital research and analytical tools should be seen as enhancing the legal research experience, not displacing the review, analysis, and judgment of an attorney. An attorney uses his or her knowledge of their client, the facts, the precedent, expert opinions, and his or her own experiences to predict the likely result in a given matter. Digital research products enhance this process by providing more data on a wider array of variables so that an attorney can take even more information into consideration.

[Get all your questions answered, request a Bloomberg Law demo , and more.]

Reference Shelf

• Litigation Essentials – Legal Tech Tools for the Modern Practitioner
• Six Steps to an Efficient Litigation Workflow
• Give Your Legal Brief a Competitive Advantage
• Artificial Intelligence for Lawyers Explained
• Litigators Sound Off on Their Most Time-Consuming Task
• The Art of the Brief: Critical Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

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All Subjects

Legal Method and Writing

Study guides for every class, that actually explain what's on your next test, case law research, from class:.

Case law research involves examining judicial decisions made by courts to understand how laws are interpreted and applied in specific situations. This type of research is crucial in legal practice as it helps inform arguments and supports the development of legal strategies by providing precedents that guide current cases. By analyzing case law, legal professionals can identify trends, discover relevant rulings, and gain insights into how courts are likely to decide similar matters in the future.

congrats on reading the definition of case law research . now let's actually learn it.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

• Case law research is vital for preparing for litigation, as it allows attorneys to build stronger arguments based on prior rulings.
• Legal databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis are commonly used for case law research, providing access to vast collections of court opinions.
• When conducting case law research, it's important to consider the hierarchy of courts; higher court decisions typically hold more weight than those from lower courts.
• Case law is dynamic and can change over time due to new rulings or changes in legal interpretations, making ongoing research essential.
• Understanding the facts and reasoning behind prior cases helps lawyers anticipate how judges may rule on current cases based on established patterns.

Review Questions

• Case law research significantly impacts the development of legal strategies by providing attorneys with precedents that inform their arguments. When lawyers analyze previous rulings, they can better understand judicial reasoning and predict how a judge may approach a similar case. This understanding enables them to craft arguments that align with existing case law, enhancing their chances of success in litigation.
• Understanding the hierarchy of courts is crucial when conducting case law research because higher court decisions are binding on lower courts within their jurisdiction. This means that a ruling from a Supreme Court or appellate court carries more weight than decisions made by trial courts. When attorneys cite precedents, they must ensure that they reference decisions from appropriate levels of the court system to effectively support their legal arguments.
• Changes in case law can have significant implications for future legal interpretations and the overall legal landscape. When courts establish new precedents or overturn existing ones, they can shift how laws are applied across various contexts. This evolution influences not only ongoing litigation but also legislative action and public policy, as lawmakers may respond to new interpretations by amending statutes or creating new laws. Ultimately, the dynamic nature of case law ensures that the legal system remains adaptable to societal changes and evolving standards.

Related terms

A precedent is a legal principle or rule established in a previous court case that is binding or persuasive in subsequent cases with similar issues.

Statutory interpretation refers to the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation, often informed by case law to clarify ambiguities.

Briefing Cases : Briefing cases involves summarizing important aspects of court decisions, including facts, issues, holdings, and reasoning, to aid understanding and application in legal contexts.

" Case law research " also found in:

Subjects ( 3 ).

• Advanced Legal Research
• Introduction to Law and Legal Process
• United States Law and Legal Analysis

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AI for Legal Research: A Guide for Legal Professionals

How to use ai for legal research – including the risks and benefits of ai in law and legal practice.

While there are enormous time-saving benefits to using AI tools for research, legal professionals need to balance productivity gains with the risks of using this evolving technology for such important, detail-oriented work. Bloomberg Law’s AI-driven legal research tools are built to enhance your legal research capabilities – not replace an attorney’s judgment and expertise.

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Bloomberg Law can help you harness the power of AI to shorten your legal research cycle and gain a competitive advantage without compromising on deep, quality research you can trust.

AI and the Legal Profession in 2024

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Learn how legal AI technology can shorten the legal research cycle and give your legal brief a competitive advantage.

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Legal research is the process of uncovering and understanding all precedents, laws, regulations, and other legal authorities that apply in a case and inform an attorney’s course of action. A strong case strategy hinges on exhaustive legal research.

But conducting legal research can challenge even the most skilled legal practitioners. As laws change and legal precedents evolve across jurisdictions, it can be difficult to keep pace with every legal development – let alone turn those research insights into actionable strategies and legal responses. The right AI tools for legal professionals can streamline the legal research process and mitigate common cost and personnel obstacles.

Enter artificial intelligence (AI), which is changing the practice of law and, therefore, the process of legal research. But as AI technology continues to evolve, legal professionals need to be able to balance the benefits of using AI with the risks – and understand how to choose the best legal AI tools – so they can more efficiently and accurately perform their work.

What does a legal researcher do?

A legal researcher typically explores case law to identify and interpret the most relevant cases concerning the legal topic at issue. A legal researcher can also take a deep dive into a judge’s past rulings or the opposing counsel’s record of success. Conducting effective, comprehensive research is a cornerstone of any legal professional’s skills.

“Legal research is so different from any other kind of research,” said Madeline Cohen, JD, MLS, library relations director for Bloomberg Law, noting that one reason for this difference is because you must find everything that could potentially affect your case and your client, including information that could both help and hurt them.

Can AI do legal research?

Yes. Legal research is one of the most common ways legal professionals use generative AI in their practice. Ideally, researchers can use legal AI tools to carry out comprehensive research more efficiently. However, there are some caveats.

First, let’s be clear on what artificial intelligence refers to. In its simplest form, AI is an overarching description of technologies that use computers and software to create intelligent, humanlike behavior. Specifically, “generative AI” technology can respond to specific user prompts by drawing on enormous data sources to instantaneously create seemingly new, task-appropriate content such as essays, blog posts, poetry, designs, images, videos, and software code.

Madeline Cohen, JD, MLS, library relations director, Bloomberg Industry Group

The benefits of using AI for legal research

The benefits of AI in law are clear: the unmatched speed of AI layered into a top legal intelligence platform can help legal professionals prepare better and faster than ever before, resulting in added efficiencies, more streamlined workflows, better training and education, elevated profits, and, ultimately, greater client satisfaction. Legal AI tools can automate time-intensive tasks such as reviewing evidence or producing initial drafts of motions, legal briefs, contracts, and settlement agreements. However, it also creates serious risks if not used properly.

Faster, more comprehensive docket searches

Crafting searches is already a critical skill for using legal research software effectively. The right docket search query can provide a wealth of information about relevant cases, jurisdictions, judges, and opposing counsel.

In the past, legal professionals have conducted docket searches manually, which required lots of time. But now, AI technology can help legal professionals carry out their research much faster by sifting through documents in seconds instead of hours or days.

Leverage data for more actionable insights

Because these AI technologies can sift through thousands of cases so quickly and comprehensively, modern legal research tools can make instantaneous associations between related case law and help aggregate or summarize data in more useful ways.

For example, before litigation analytics were common, a partner may have asked a junior associate to find all summary judgment motions ruled on by a specific judge to determine how often that judge grants or denies them. The attorney could have manually searched PACER or searched through court opinions, which would have taken a long time. Now that legal research can be done so much more efficiently with AI-powered tools, it frees up time and effort a legal professional can use for other activities that benefit their client.

Retain more work in-house

Given these efficiencies, some legal professionals may wonder: Can AI replace paralegals?

Rather than replacing jobs such as those of paralegals, it’s more likely that AI will help legal teams – especially in-house legal departments – to retain more work in-house. Both in-house attorneys and lawyers practicing at firms say that generative AI will help reduce their reliance on outside counsel , which will allow these teams to be more selective in the work they outsource and give them more leverage to make alternative fee arrangements for work sent to outside counsel.

There is potential for AI to impact certain duties performed by legal assistants, paralegals, and even early-career attorneys. But the rules of ethical conduct demand that lawyers must train and supervise nonlawyers who assist them. That duty extends to their deployment of AI.

The risks of using AI for legal research

While AI tools offer automation capabilities that can resolve inefficiencies in legal practice, the use of AI technology raises serious issues for the legal field, including:

• Algorithmic bias – This occurs when the algorithm itself is biased, or when an otherwise unbiased algorithm is trained on biased data
• Hallucinations – The phenomenon by which AI chatbots may confidently provide false information in response to a prompt
• Inaccuracies
• Confidentiality concerns

Some legal professionals have been deploying AI for the better part of a decade to parse data and query documents. But the explosion of interest in certain powerful AI tools for general use has led to questions and concerns within the legal profession – and even led some law firms and in-house legal departments to entirely ban the use of this emerging technology due to the potential risks.

“I think the thing that most people are worried about when they do research using generative AI is hallucinations,” said Cohen, pointing to news reports of lawyers who have submitted made-up citations generated by faulty AI research. “That is something that Bloomberg Law takes very seriously, and we’re working on ways to make sure that the data we pull from and the results that we give back are complete.”

Use AI to enhance, not replace, legal teams

AI shouldn’t take the place of the review, analysis, and judgment of an attorney. AI tools should be used to enhance the legal research process by providing more data on a wider array of variables so that a legal professional can take even more information into consideration. Legal professionals should still rely on their own experience and knowledge of their clients, the facts, legal precedent, and expert opinions.

Madeline Cohen, JD, MLS

Which is the best AI for legal research?

The best AI for legal research should be designed just for that: legal research.

Legal AI tools are valuable because they can analyze massive amounts of data and unearth details that are undetectable to the human eye – potentially minimizing errors and helping researchers avoid missing important, relevant documents. Yet without human expertise and supervision ensuring the quality and accuracy of data, AI can potentially do more harm than good.

“Being able to analyze – that’s the bread and butter of attorneys,” said Cohen, noting that legal professionals must know how to apply their research and make a case. “That’s what the best legal platforms do that regular generative AI doesn’t.”

Recent advancements in AI technology require an extraordinary level of discernment and testing. General-use AI tools don’t have the capabilities to support the layered, nuanced research that lawyers need.

The latest legal research tools use AI technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning to help legal professionals more quickly discover valuable information that would otherwise take hours of manual research to find.

Natural language processing improves traditional legal research methods

Natural language processing refers to a computer’s ability to understand human language in the way that people naturally speak and write it.

Today, users are generally familiar with natural language searching, which is widely used on popular internet search engines. As platforms continue to adapt to changing technologies, legal researchers will begin gravitating away from traditional ways of searching such as using keywords or Boolean search.

One potential downside: These search engines can apply algorithms to rank the relevance of results, and the reasons for those rankings may not be obvious in all platforms. You may need to interpret whether the search is giving you everything you need.

When considering legal research software, check to see if the tool you’re vetting offers context on results. For example, Bloomberg Law’s Smart Code tool quickly pulls case extracts related to your natural language search and ranks each case interpretation as strong, moderate, or weak, so you don’t waste time on results you don’t need.

Supervised machine learning minimizes risk

Machine learning refers to a computer’s ability to “learn” by using algorithms to analyze data, find patterns, or predict outcomes.

There are three types of machine learning to understand when considering how to use AI for legal research:

• Supervised machine learning: The AI application seeks and recognizes patterns within predefined data sets. These data sets are typically created by human domain experts who act as “guidance counselors” of sorts to the machines.
• Unsupervised machine learning: The AI application creates data sets without known outputs or predefined data. The application is, in essence, learning and adapting to inputs on its own.
• Reinforcement learning: The AI application uses an algorithm to create correlations. By incorporating rewards and learning from data feedback, the application uncovers the ultimate processing path.

The best AI for legal research is one that incorporates supervised machine learning tools. This approach offers the benefit of faster research than ever with less risk of inaccuracies or missing documents. Supervised machine learning can automate the tedious process of reviewing legal documents, checking citations, searching case law, and finding additional relevant content. It can also help you identify various document types across court dockets, so you’re able to search for a precise filing type.

Because the legal field places supreme importance on accuracy, legal professionals should be extremely cautious about relying on tools that use purely unsupervised learning techniques.

Getting started: Choosing an AI research tool

If you’re hesitant about implementing AI in your legal practice or unsure of its potential ROI for your legal team, know that you don’t have to be an AI expert to gain value from the technology once you understand its risks and benefits.

“It’s actually pretty easy to start,” said Cohen, noting that you can ask a law librarian at your firm or law school for training. “You don’t have to learn everything all at once.” Start small, with low-stakes tasks such as those related to workflows or topic searches.

“Choose software that’s transparent about its processes and will answer any questions that you ask,” Cohen said. “In the realm of generative AI, where you can have these ethical concerns, you really need to be careful, take it slow, be steady, and focus on the real day-to-day uses of generative AI,” Cohen said. “What we want to do at Bloomberg Law is make good attorneys great. And we want to make them the most efficient researchers they can be.”

Take your legal research to the next level with AI innovations from Bloomberg Law

As the volume of legal data continues to grow exponentially, AI for legal professionals will become an increasingly valuable tool to drastically reduce time needed to perform legal research.

Download our report on AI and the Legal Profession in 2024 to learn more about how generative AI is transforming the practice of law.

For more than a decade, Bloomberg Law has been perfecting the power of AI to help lawyers speed up and simplify legal research tasks. Our AI-driven legal research tools have been designed and precision-tested for legal practice to help lawyers cut down on research time and prepare their case better and faster than ever before.

Request a demo to see how the unmatched speed of AI layered into the world’s top legal intelligence platform can streamline your work and help you find the answers you need quickly.

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