Getting Started- Sources And Techniques for Legal Research: The Basics of Legal Research

While the library staff will assist researchers to the limit of their abilities, they are restricted in the scope of services they can offer. Library staff can assist in finding or suggesting sources, and can explain their use, but can not provide interpretation of legal materials or attempt to apply them to specific fact situations. If possible, we strongly suggest consulting with a lawyer for any more complicated legal questions.

Additional resources for your research are available at the Shelby County Law Library.

Shelby County Law Library
140 Adams. St., Room 334
Memphis, TN, 38103

Telephone: (901) 527- 7041

Facing legal issues can be disorienting. If you have them available, the best place to start with an unfamiliar legal issue is with any documents provided to you by the courts or the opposing party. These will lay out the major legal claims, and will usually directly cite to relevant statutes for the situation. If you are planning to bring suit as the plaintiff, you will likely begin with less base material. Please ask a member of the library staff, they may be able to direct you to introductory sources that can help you plan out your case, or can help you find materials based on what you already have.

One of the most valuable skills to any legal researcher is the ability to formulate clear and actionable questions.

• Determine Jurisdiction- The answers to most legal questions are dependent on the jurisdiction. The first thing you should do is to determine which courts will be relevant to your case. While researching, you should concentrate on finding sources that are from the jurisdictions you have identified as relevant.  
• Determine relevant parties- When formulating a legal question, it is important to determine which individuals in the actual fact situation are legally relevant. If your case arises from an event with multiple people, take a moment to consider which individuals engaged in behavior that is relevant to your legal questions.
• Determine key concepts- Based on your fact situation, and any documents already collected, identify the key issues effecting your case.  
• A few common question structures:
  • Under the laws applicable to (jurisdiction), is (action taken by person) considered (criminal or tortious conduct)  
  • Under the laws applicable to (jurisdiction), is (relevant person) legally required to (take action) under (situation)
  • Under the laws applicable to (jurisdiction), does (unique fact situation) count as (legal concept)

• Limit your searches- Legal databases often hold millions of documents. If you are only interested in a small subset of those materials- for example, cases from a particular state, you can cut down on junk results by using the database's limitation function. These are frequently found in a toolbar along the top or left side of the screen.
• Use Boolean searches and proximity operators- Most major databases will recognize basic Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT). Many will also recognize proximity operators, a more advanced form of AND that also requires the two words or phrases to be within a certain range of each other. You can use these tools to more accurately control the results of your search.  
• Use the advanced search screen. Most search products will provide an option for an advanced search screen. From this screen, your options for searching will be significantly expanded. You will normally be able to search specific parts of a document, and many advanced search screens have an easy interface for using Boolean operators. 

Legal research is an iterative process. The answers to your initial question may point the way toward still other questions. This can make it difficult to know when you have done enough research. In general, if multiple related searches are returning the same set of relevant results, you have probably found most of the key materials related to that question.