Legal Research

Legal Research: Take the law into your own hands.

Do you have a legal problem but don't know where to find the law? Legal Research gives you the skills to find the answers--fast.

Legal Research is the only comprehensive, plain-English guide to legal research written for nonlawyers. Whether you're handling a personal legal matter, running a business, studying for a legal career, or just need to understand a law that affects you, this fully updated edition walks you through every step of the research process.

You'll learn how to:

• locate statutes, regulations, and court decisions at the federal, state, and local levels


• research legal questions online using free websites and reliable legal databases


• ensure your research is current so you're always relying on good law, and


• organize your results and draft a professional legal memorandum for school, work, or court.

Topics covered include:

• understanding the basics of case law, statutory law, administrative law, and constitutional law


• identifying your legal issue and choosing the right resources


• finding and using secondary sources, including legal encyclopedias, treatises, law reviews, and practice manuals


• locating and using federal and state statutes, regulations, and local ordinances


• finding, reading, and Shepardizing case law, and


• validating your research and organizing it into a legal memorandum.

Legal Research also teaches you how to narrow your results so you won't drown in an information flood, whether you're working in a law library or researching online.