Legal Research Method the American Legal System

Legal Research Method

The American legal system comprises trial courts, appellate courts, and supreme courts. Generally, trial courts hear cases first; appellate courts hear appeals filed by litigants who are unsuccessful at the trial court level; and the appropriate supreme courts hear issues appealed from those decisions. The Federal Court of Appeals system comprises thirteen federal circuits based on geography; they hear appeals from state federal courts. Legal research consists of identifying previous decisions dealing with the same legal issues as a particular case, especially cases decided in the same jurisdiction because courts apply the informal concept of stare decisis to them. Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are binding on all federal, state, and lower courts. The fundamental research presentation method follows the traditional IRAC approach of identifying both the legal issue in the case and the relevant case law, applying that case law to the case, and formulating a conclusion that reflects a consistent and logical analysis of previous case law and secondary research results.

In general, traditional legal research consists of identifying relevant primary sources such as controlling statutes and previous courts' interpretations of those statutes. Often, it is also helpful to identify the legislative history of statutes because they provide the best indication of the principles and purposes of legislation. Thereafter, secondary sources, such as treatises, hornbooks, and case law summaries are useful, as are the law review and journal articles published by law schools on specific areas of interest. Legal digests provide assistance identifying specific points of law from relevant cases as do the Restatements of law authored most often by law professors that detail the historical evolution of legal analyses of particular legal issues. In the modern era, online subscription-based resources are tremendously helpful: the most well-known are LexisNexis, Findlaw, and WashLaw, all of which allow users to search specified jurisdictions, issues, keywords, and levels of judicial review.