Legal Dictionary: Legal Research

DEFINITION

• Legal Research is the process of locating an answer to an unknown legal problem or the determination that the legal conundrum presented is a "case of first impression" that has not been decided, codified or regulated.

• Legal information can be organized into two categories: primary law and secondary law.

• Primary law is binding as precedent under the doctrine of stare decisis. Primary law consists of statutes, regulations and case law.

• Secondary authority is not legally binding, but is an explanation of primary law and legal theory. Secondary law consists of legal encyclopedias, digests, law journals, treatises, hornbooks and the like.

• Because our legal system is based on precedent, i.e., upon decided cases, Legal Research is motivated by the necessity of finding what the courts have decided in the past when confronted with a set of facts.

• In addition to locating the primary law that addresses a legal issue, the legal researcher must determine whether or not the law has changed since it was added online or printed in a book. An attorney cannot base a legal argument on a case that has been overturned, a statute that has been repealed, or a regulation that has been amended.

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OTHER BUZZWORDS

• Headnote
• Opinion
• Parallel Citation

For more definitions, visit the FindLaw Legal Dictionary.

RELATED PRACTICE AREA:

Litigation & Appeals