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For those among you
with the insane desire to engage in detailed legal research, this page
provides connections to a variety of free and not-so-free sources to do
so. For RVCC students, this page also contains an in-depth (this IS legal
research, after all) tutorial on doing computer-assisted legal research
using LEXIS.
A research paralegal
assists her employer in the research and writing of legal motions, memorandums
and appellate briefs. Effective paralegals working in this area of law
will know how to navigate the law library and the major sources of legal
authority. They will need to do the mundane things like look up statutes
and court opinions, but also draft and review legal documents from case
briefs to appellate briefs, and everything in-between. The para-professional
here will likely handle the entire matter, including doing the research,
shepardizing the sources and drafting the legal documents for attorney
review. Some paralegals in this area of practice work as law librarians.
The following sources
provide an overview of this area of law:
- American
Association of Law Libraries
www.aallnet.org/products/pub_how_to.asp
This site contains ordering info on a 12-page booklet called "How
To Research A Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-Lawyers." The
booklet is free and covers the basic steps in legal research, describing
basic sources of legal information, giving examples of legal encyclopedias,
treatises, articles, codes, reporters, and digests.
- American
Association of Law Libraries
www.aallnet.org/research
While there are millions of Web pages with law and law-related information,
and hundreds of valuable legal research sites, this page is selective.
It presents fourteen internet sites that provide an excellent starting
point for your legal research journey. Most of the websites link you
to both primary and secondary sources on a variety of legal subjects...
Happy searching!
- Here are two sites
that profess to tell the user how to "write
good legal stuff"!!
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The following sources
will help you find research law and research professionals in any area
of the country:
- Technical
Advisory Service for Attorneys www.tasanet.com
for experts in all areas of law nationwide
- The
Legal Pages www.lawdiary.com
a comprehensive directory of goods and services for NJ legal professionals,
it provides local connections to experts in all disciplines, including
legal research services and appellate brief printers!
- American
Association of Law Libraries www.aallnet.org
This association promotes the value of law libraries to the legal and
public communities, and provides leadership in the field of legal information.
Its website connects to many research links, to continuing education
seminars and to legal publications.
- Association
of Trial Lawyers of America http://www.atla.org/
Homepage of national association of trial attorneys, contains a Legal
Research & Services link that provides many useful tips.
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An abundance of powerful
legal research tools using CD-ROMs, on-line services and the internet
are now available to the legal professional to supplement or replace the
traditional law library. Deciding which options will be most effective
and economical is often difficult, even for the experienced researcher.
RVCC uses LEXIS www.lexis.com
as its computer-assisted service, paying a fee each month to do so. Some
sites are free, but one must be careful to check the accuracy and "update"
dates for currency on these sites. The free sites that are government-run
are usually reliable, though not always current. Anything taken from
non-government sites should always be validated, as should all legal research
anyway! The following are links to some free research sites and the two
most widely used fee-based services: LEXIS and Westlaw.
- Rutgers
Camden Law Library http://lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/
By far the best free site for both NJ and Federal court opinions, which
are browsable by topic or by year, and searchable by citation, case
or party names. Full texts of opinions are given. Also provides full
set of both state and federal court rules, ethics committee opinions,
administrative law opinions, evidence rules, the state & federal
constitution, etc. Most government research sources can be found here.
- NJ
LawNet www.njlawnet.com
A site that sends you out to other sites for info. Does contain good
articles under links called NJ Law in Review, NJ Legislation
in Review, and a great Q & A Forum.
- Lawyer’s
Express www.lawyerexpress.com
Excellent & very cool research site that provides enormous info,
especially under the legal research links. Provides links for corporate
searches, to check company ratings, for federal law and agencies, state
law and agencies and even international law links. Totes itself as
being designed by a busy lawyer for busy lawyers.
- LEXIS
www.lexis.com
- Westlaw
www.westlaw.com
Two fee-based legal services that provide everything you want to
search for or know in the legal research sphere. You set up an account,
receive an ID# and password, then enter their system. Both allow you
to search the full text of primary & secondary authority, have a
file of forms & documents you can access, and provide factual info
like the financial status of companies, UCC filings, status of pending
lawsuits, statistics on jury awards, business and personal addresses,
birth & death records and much more! Westlaw calls its parts "databases"
and LEXIS calls its parts "libraries". Other than that, searching
in both systems is fairly similar, and each provides an on-line tutorial
to assist the user.
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There are no required
formats for legal memorandums or legal briefs. However, if your firm
practices in the appellate area, some necessary forms are available on-line
for filing appeals both in federal & NJ courts. See the
Litigation
Practices Page for more info and links to these forms.
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You must be a currently
enrolled RVCC student with an assigned WebCT ID and Password to access
this secure area at http://webct.raritanval.edu/SCRIPT/tops/scripts/serve_home.
After logging in to
the Home page, please use the icon labeled "Legal Research &
Writing".
For technical support, please contact online@raritanval.edu.
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Legal Research & Writing