1L Legal Research - 2022-2023

It depends.

• The secondary source(s) you consult will depend on what you already know about the legal issue you are researching.  Most research problems do not require consulting every secondary source in existence.
• Not all secondary sources are created equal. The appropriateness of using secondary sources may vary based on the type of research in which you are engaged and in what areas of law you are researching.

See "Commonly Used Secondary Sources" for a detailed comparison of the different categories of secondary sources.

Online Databases (Westlaw, Lexis Advance, & Bloomberg Law):

• There are several ways to find secondary sources in online databases.  If you have a specific source in mind, for example American Jurisprudence, then you can just start typing the name of the source into the search box.  A dropdown menu will populate with the title of the source.
• If you are unsure which secondary source will be most useful, you can always narrow down to secondary sources from the home page and search within the secondary sources available through the research database. 
  • Remember:  Not all secondary sources are provided by every legal research platform.  Lexis Advance does not contain the same information as Westlaw, and one might be more useful for a jurisdiction or area of law than the other.
• Always check the date of a treatise’s last update; Look for “i” buttons online (known as scope notes).
• Some electronic secondary sources span several pages.  While searching the document using your browser (Ctrl+F, ⌘+F) will usually provide you with what you need, if the chapter or section is more than one page, you will need to use the magnifying glass to search the entire document rather than just the first page.

Print:

• While the information you need for this class is available electronically, not all legal treatises are provided online.  You may also be limited to only one legal research database in practice; therefore, it is important to remember that many of the resources that are available electronically are also available in print.
• Electronic secondary sources are organized in the exact same way as a print resources, so if you are familiar with one, you will be able to navigate the other.
  • Remember:  There is a caveat to print resources.  While electronic resources usually are updated consistently, print resources are updated on schedules that might mean that the information is a few months old.  It is up to you to make sure you update the primary law that is found through the secondary source.

Finding Aids

• Secondary sources are organized like most other books.  They have a table of contents and index.  Once you have narrowed your search to a specific secondary source, it might be easier to use the table of contents or index to find the information that you need.
• Once you find a relevant section, remember that there might be other, just as relevant, sections in the same chapter, so it is always a good strategy to browse the surrounding sections to see if you are missing any important information.

Searching

• When researching secondary sources online, it usually is easier to narrow down by jurisdiction or topic before searching.
• Once you have narrowed down to a specific topic or jurisdiction, your search can be relatively simple since you are searching through less information.