Chapter 7



Chapter 7

Contemporary Online Legal Research

Chapter Outline

1. Introduction

2. Going Online-An Internet Primer

3. Free Legal Resources on the Internet

4. Lexis and Westlaw

5. Alternative Online Programs

6. Conducting Online Research

Chapter Objectives

After completing this chapter, you will know:

• Some strategies for planning and conducting research on the Internet

• How you can find people and investigate companies using Internet search tools and databases

• How to find some of the best legal resources available on the Internet

• The advantages of the major fee-based online programs

Chapter Outline

INTRODUCTION

1 Computers and online databases have greatly simplified the tasks of paralegals in all areas of their work

2 New cases and changes in statutory law are entered almost immediately into certain online databases

GOING ONLINE – AN INTERNET PRIMER

1 Internet Tools – two of the most widely used parts of the internet are e-mail and the World Wide Web

1 E-Mail

1 One of the most common uses of the Internet

2 World Wide Web

1 The Web is a system of web pages or “sites”

2 Home page—main page of a Web site

3 Uniform Resource Locators—URLs

1 A URL is an Internet address

2 To a paralegal this is an electronic citation

3 Http—hypertext transfer protocol—what allows computers to communicate with each other

2 Navigating the Internet

1 Browsers

1 How the Internet is accessed

2 Browsers allow the computer to roam the Web

3 Browsers make it possible to copy text from a web site and put it into a word processing document

2 Guides and Directories

1 Guides and directories provide a list of Web sites arranged into categories

3 Search Engines

1 One of the most important tools for conducting research

2 The search engine scans the Web and makes an index of the contents of the different Web pages found

3 Some only search for specific categories of resources

4 Kinds of Searches—Search engines conduct searches by keyword or by concept

1 Keyword—the search engine looks for the exact term entered

2 Concept Search looks for related words

5 Search Operators—Boolean logic is a system that uses connecting words to link the key words and makes the search more precise.

3 A Threshold Question: Is the Internet the Right Research Tool for your Project?

1 The availability (accessibility) of a source, what it costs, and the time it would take to use it are the basic considerations

1 What sources are needed?

2 Are they on the Internet?

3 Are they available elsewhere?

4 What is the cost?

5 How much time is there to produce the answer?

6 Is the source available online?

FREE LEGAL RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET

1 General Legal Resources

1 The dominant legal information portal for those not using fee-based services is FindLaw

2 Another major legal resource site is provided by the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University Law School

3 Another popular site is maintained by the Washburn University Law School

4 A good source for foreign and international legal research is Hieros Gamos

5 LawRunner at the Internet Legal Research Group provides many links to domestic and international legal information

2 Specific Legal Resources

1 Secondary Sources of Law

1 FindLaw

2 American Law Sources On-line

3 University of Southern California Law School

2 Court Opinions

1 Cornell Law School

2 U.S. Supreme Court

3 Emory University Law Library

3 Other Resources

1 Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX)

2 New York State Library

3 Government Sites

1 Federal Law Starting Point

1 – Links to every branch of the Federal government

2 gpoaccess – posts information about all three branches of government

3 – U.S. Department of Justice website

2 Federal Legislative Home Pages

1 – House of Representatives

2

3 Business Information

1 – Web site for the U.S. Department of Commerce

2 – Patent and Trademark Office website

3 – U.S. Copyright office website

4 sbaonline.

5 – EEOC website

LEXIS AND WESTLAW

1 Both are commercial legal research systems

2 The law firm must be a subscriber to the system

1 Accessing Westlaw or Lexis

1 Must be a subscriber and access is through the Internet

2 Must have a password

2 Conducting a Search

1 Can use any of the following

1 Citation

2 Legal topic

3 Case name

4 Party name

5 Publication

3 Checking Citations

1 Both provide online citators

2 Shepard’s – Lexis

3 KeyCite – Westlaw

4 Shepard’s Citations—One of the most valuable functions of Shepard’s is that it provides a means to verify the history of a case

1 The Organization of Shepard’s Citations

2 Types of Information Provided by Shepard’s Citations

1 Parallel citations

2 Other cases

3 References to periodicals

4 Case history

3 Administrative Regulations

4 Legal Periodicals

5 KeyCite

1 An online citator on Westlaw that can trace case history, retrieve secondary sources, categorize legal citations by legal issue, and perform other functions.

6 Selecting a Database

1 Select a database you want to search

2 “Search these databases” can be used in Westlaw

7 Searching a Database

1 The Terms and Connectors Method

1 Use numerical and grammatical connectors to specify the relationships of the terms

2 The Natural Language Method

1 Type a description of an issue in plain English

8 Searching within Results

1 Allows you to scan the documents in your search result for terms that were not included in your query to refine your search

9 Is Lexis or Westlaw Better?

1 Most large law firms subscribe to both services, allowing research staff to choose the one they prefer

2 Asked which system they would pick if allowed only one service, 245 respondents said Westlaw, and 89 chose Lexis

ALTERNATIVE ONLINE PROGRAMS

1 Several fee-based online programs offer services more limited but less expensive than those of Westlaw and Lexis

1 Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an easy-to-use Internet service that allows users to obtain court cases and docket information from federal appeals, district, and bankruptcy courts

2 Fastcase provides access to all Supreme Court decisions, federal appeals decisions back to 1924, and federal district court decisions back to 1932

3 Loislaw has large federal and state case, statutory, and regulatory databases, but Loislaw also allows subscribers access to its specialized databases of secondary sources

4 Casemaker provides essentially the same set of federal and state case reports, statutes, and regulations as most other services

5 VersusLaw is a low-cost service that includes Supreme Court and U.S. court of appeals cases and current federal district court cases, as well as state appellate court cases and cases of some specialized courts

CONDUCTING ONLINE RESEARCH

1 Plan Ahead—Analyze the Facts and Identify the Issues

1 Know what you are looking for

2 Determine which sources are most likely to lead you to the desired results

2 Online Research Strategies

1 Starting Points

1 Can start with an online directory

2 Search engine can be used to compile a list of Websites containing certain key words

3 Visit the sites to determine which ones are useful

2 Discovering Available Resources

1 Listservs—list of e-mail addresses of persons interested in a particular topic

2 Newsgroups—A forum that resembles a community bulletin board. Researcher posts a question and waits for responses

3 Blogs—Online journals

3 Browsing the Links

1 Mark sites as favorites or use bookmarks

4 Narrowing Your Focus

1 Remember that your browser also has the ability to search a Web page that you are viewing

3 Evaluating What You Find

1 Consider the reliability of the information found

2 Identifying the Type of Source

1 Is the source of information a primary, secondary or tertiary source?

3 Is the Source Reputable?

1 There are several online sources to assist with the evaluation of web sites

4 Updating Your Results

1 One way to stay current is to check the most recent data by going online

5 Locating People and Investigating Companies

1 Finding People

1 Public records are helpful in locating people, but some of these records are not on the Internet

2 Web searches can be useful and can be cheaper

1 Broad Searches

1 Can run a broad search with a general search engine

1 Example – search all U.S. telephone books

2 Narrow Searches

1 The knowledge about a person can be used to narrow a search for that person

1 The person’s place of employment or their profession

2 Professors at a college or employees of certain companies are two such examples

3 Business licenses can also be used

4 Adoptees and birth parents

5 State’s driving and vehicle registration

6 Some commercial services give access to information for a fee

3 Fee-based searches

2 Investigating Companies

1 Finding Company Names and Addresses

1 Running a search with a telephone number can be used to find a company’s name and address

2 Can also find a company’s name and address by using a director that searches by industry and state

2 Uncovering Detailed Information about Companies

1 Use the company’s Web site to see annual reports, press releases, price lists and staffing directories

2 Associations and Organizations

1 When gathering information about a person or a company, you may find it useful to check various professional organizations and associations

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