What is Legal Research?

• Searching for AUTHORITY that can be applied to a given set of facts and issues

• Gathering information to support legal theories/decision-making

Why is Legal Research necessary?

• Why do people end up in court?• Different people may understand factual events differently• Different people may interpret the law differently

• Lawyers’ Hours: Research > Appearances• A good portion of lawyers’ time is actually spent in the office or the

library, finding, reading, interpreting, and explaining the law to clients/judges in written legal documents

• Find all viable legal theories and avoid those that have failed in the past

• Citations make the lawyer’s explanation of the law credible by informing the client/judge of the controlling law in the jurisdiction

How? – RESEARCH PLAN

Basic Steps1.Conduct factual analysis2.Identify legal issues3.Develop search terms4.Collect background information5.Search for authority6.Synthesize arguments7.Update and verify

Step 1: CONDUCT FACTUAL ANALYSIS• 5Ws 1H• Person/s involved (type/class; relationship of parties with each other)• Place where the facts arose• Thing/s or subject matter involved

Step 2: IDENTIFY LEGAL ISSUES• Cause of action or ground for defense• Relief sought• Will help determine the relevant facts

Step 3: DEVELOP SEARCH TERMS• Terms and phrases to narrow search and yield relevant information• Consider which branches of government may have established law

Step 4: COLLECT BACKGROUND INFORMATION• Secondary sources: sources that describe and interpret the law

(journal articles, treatises, textbooks, annotations, digests, indices), cited to persuade the court to reach a particular decision, but the court is not obligated to follow

• Summarized in a narrative• Don’t reinvent the wheel – learn from legal experts• Get most important authority – provide references to relevant

primary authorityStep 5: SEARCH FOR AUTHORITY

• Primary sources: documents that establish the law on a particular issue (case law or legislative act)

• Authoritative, controlling, precedent• Courts apply same law to similar cases; bound to follow precedent

Step 6: SYNTHESIZE ARGUMENTS• Case brief/legal opinion/legal memo• What principles can be inferred that connect the cases?• Distinguish relation to leading cases – Binding? Narrower ratio? Obiter?

Strong dissent?• Have you correctly incorporated statutes and laws?• Weaknesses – different interpretation? Not applicable to set of facts?

Step 7: UPDATE AND VERIFY• Make sure laws are still good• Make sure cases are current

How NOT to conduct research: PLAGIARISM

ALS Catalogue on PLAGIARISM• Unauthorized use• Without adequate attribution• Of the published IDEAS, EXPRESSIONS, or WORKS of another• With the intent or through neglect• To pass the same as his or her own in any written materials

submitted, printed or published in any Law School publication or in compliance with academic requirements

Notwithstanding any jurisprudence to the contrary, and in accordance with the exercise of the constitutionally recognized “academic freedom,” plagiarism is identified not through intent but through the act itself: the objective act of falsely attributing to one’s self what is not one’s work, whether intentional or out of neglect, is sufficient to conclude that plagiarism has occurred.

One who pleads ignorance, appeals to lack of malice or alleges poor instruction from teacher or superiors, are not valid excuses.

Etymology of Plagiarism

Some forms of plagiarism (ALS Catalogue)

1. Appropriating as one’s own a written source verbatim and directly using it without enclosing in quotation marks or giving credit to the original author (footnote or in-text) – includes using references used by the author without citing the author himself or herself

2. Taking words or paragraphs from a written source and paraphrasing such written source by changing one or two words or sentences without a direct quotation or giving credit to said source

3. Copying the work of another and changing the structure of the sentences from active to passive or vice-versa without quoting or giving credit

4. Rearranging the structure of the paragraphs of the copied material and passing it as his/her own without giving credit5. Piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole and passing as his/her own without giving credit6. Summarizing the copied material in his or her own words without giving proper credit7. Adopting ideas, concepts, frameworks, formulas, graphics or pictures without acknowledgment8. Appropriating as one’s work the project output of a team of which he/she is a member without acknowledgment9. Claiming credit for a proportion of the work contributed to a project output of a team that is greater than actually contributed10. Manipulating and deliberately changing facts and figures from a previous material and presenting them as new information in a plagiarized material

Element of Intent

Jurisprudence vs Academic Policies