Legal Research

Research Methodology

IRAC Framework

1. Issue: Identify the precise legal question
2. Rule: Find governing law and standards
3. Application: Analyze how law applies to facts
4. Conclusion: Synthesize findings

Search Strategy

1. Start with secondary sources for unfamiliar areas
2. Identify key cases from annotations
3. Use headnotes/topics for comprehensive searching
4. Verify currency with citators
5. Check for recent developments

Authoritative Sources

Primary Databases (Subscription)

Free Legal Resources

Court Databases

Citation Format

Bluebook Standard

[Case Name], [Volume] [Reporter] [Page], [Pinpoint] ([Court] [Year])

Example:
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444 (1966)

Common Reporters

• U.S. - Supreme Court
• F.3d/F.4th - Federal Circuit Courts
• F. Supp. 3d - Federal District Courts
• Regional reporters (N.E.2d, P.3d, etc.)

Research Workflow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. Define Research Question                     │
│     - Identify legal issues                      │
│     - Note jurisdiction and time constraints     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                      │
                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  2. Background Research                          │
│     - Secondary sources for overview             │
│     - Identify key terms and concepts            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                      │
                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  3. Find Primary Authority                       │
│     - Case law search                            │
│     - Statutory research                         │
│     - Regulatory review                          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                      │
                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  4. Verify & Update                              │
│     - Shepardize/KeyCite all authorities         │
│     - Check for recent developments              │
│     - Note any negative treatment                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                      │
                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  5. Analyze & Synthesize                         │
│     - Organize by weight of authority            │
│     - Identify binding vs. persuasive            │
│     - Note circuit splits or conflicts           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Best Practices

Do

• Always verify citations are still good law
• Check for recent amendments to statutes
• Note the jurisdiction and binding effect
• Document your search strategy
• Use multiple databases for comprehensive coverage

Don't

• Rely solely on headnotes without reading cases
• Cite unpublished opinions without checking rules
• Ignore negative treatment history
• Skip secondary sources in unfamiliar areas
• Assume federal law applies without checking state variations

Integration with Other Skills

• brief-writing: Research feeds into brief drafting
• litigation: Motion research and case strategy
• contract-lifecycle: Statutory requirements research
• compliance-tracking: Regulatory research

Reference Files

For detailed source lists and search templates, see:

• references/sources.md - Comprehensive legal database guide
• references/search-templates.md - Common search strategies
• references/citation-guide.md - Citation format reference