1L Resources, Tips and Tools: Legal Research

Brief tutorials (5 minutes or less).highlighting key legal research starting points and strategies.

Excerpt from the 1L Survival Guide created by Roberta Woods, a librarian at the University of Hawaii School of Law. This page provides useful tips for the beginning legal researcher.

General tips for starting your research and determining when it is okay to stop researching from librarians at Boston College School of Law.

Search Right
* Build a Research Strategy (7 minutes)
* Identifying Key Search Terms (4 minutes)
* How to use WestSearch Plus (5 minutes)
* Working With Search Results (4 minutes)
* Knowledge Check: Search Techniques

Quickly Understand a Legal Topic
* Getting Started with Practical Law (3 minutes)
* Getting Started with Secondary Sources (4 minutes)
* Knowledge Check: Quickly Understand Topic

Research Using Cases
* Anatomy of a Case (6 minutes)
* Getting Started with Case Law Research (6 minutes)
* Knowledge Check: Research Using Cases

Research Using Statutes
* Anatomy of a Statute (6 minutes)
* Getting Started with Statutory Research (2 minutes)
* Knowledge Check: Research Using Statutes

Validate Your Authority & Strengthen Your Argument
* What is a citator? (3 minutes)
* Introduction to KeyCite (5 minutes)
* Is your case actually good law? (5 minutes)
* Knowledge Check: Validate Authority

Get it Right
* Introduction to Quick Check (2 minutes)
* Confirm and Share Your Research (6 minutes)
* Knowledge Check: Get it Right

* Legal Research on Lexis+
* Lexis Answers on Lexis+
* Shepard's History & Shepard's At Risk on Lexis+
* Code Compare on Lexis+