What First-Year Students Should Learn in a Legal Research Class Nancy P. Johnson Assoc. Dean for Library and Information Services Georgia State Univ. College of Law Library

Law Student Research Competencies AALL Law Student Research Principles Core Legal Research Competencies Johnson article at SSRN:

General Principles  Evaluate the validity, credibility, and currency of information sources - online  Distinguish binding and persuasive authority - address contrary authority  “Work the problem” before starting research  Cost-effective – extremely difficult for students

Evaluate the Validity, Credibility, and Currency of the Information Sources  Wikipedia “This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications.”  GPO PDFs do not indicate revision dates, but their text-file versions do

Distinguish binding and persuasive authority – address contrary authority

“Work the Problem”  Constitutional Issue  ? Jurisdiction – Federal or State  ? Issue  Read secondary source to become familiar with the area of law  Locate, read, and analyze constitutional provisions and cases  Cite check the cases

Cost of research

“Information Overload”--Future Shock  In 2010, all federal courts had larger caseloads  Bankruptcy cases up 14%  U.S. Supreme Court cases up 5.4%

Case Law Research  Understand generic court system  Distinguish between official and unofficial sources  Validate results often

Finding Cases  Understand West digest system – print and online  Move from code to cases  Relationship with vendor representatives

Link between print Digest and online

Statutes  Stress all of the useful features in a code  Distinguish between a code and a session law  Introduce legislative history

Easy way to locate cases, regulations, and treatises

Administrative  Realize that using administrative rules and regulations and the decisions of the administrative board is crucial to the practice of law.  Know the value of loose-leaf services

Secondary  Excellent for background information, to gain familiarity with terms of art and to put primary sources in context  Non-legal information – know when to use it.

Know the value of your librarian