Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | Trial

Internet research for bookworms: accurate and thorough legal research can be done online - and without charge - if you know where to look.

Article Excerpt
Psst. You there. You, in the library carrel, with your Post-it Notes and change for the copy machine. You who love your code volumes and case reporters, yet find yourself increasingly alone in a library that doesn't even have as many hooks as it used to. You have probably been assailed by colleagues who ask why you are still using the books, and who argue (sometimes persuasively) that it's so much quicker and easier to do research on the Internet. You have considered it, perhaps even made a foray or two onto the Web, but you gave up in despair.

There's hope for you yet. With a little guidance, you can determine what you are looking for and where to find it.

Getting started

First, ask yourself: What do I need? Cases? Statutes? Treatises? Depositions? Before you can figure out how to find something on the Web, you need to define what you're seeking.

Example: You receive phone calls from two potential clients. Client 1 took leave from his job to care for his ailing mother. His mother died, and he told his employer he needed more leave to attend the funeral in another state. He was gone for an additional two weeks. When Client 1 returned to his job, he was fired.

Client 2's father recently passed away, and she became depressed. She sought counseling and was diagnosed with depressive disorder. She became unable to go to work and eventually told her supervisor she would need a month or two of leave. Shortly thereafter, she was fired.

Before accepting these cases, you need to determine whether the potential clients have any remedies. In particular, you wonder whether they can assert any rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Assuming the answer is yes, you will also need tools to develop the case--pleadings and information about potential expert witnesses.

What is needed first? A copy of the statute, then some case law interpreting the act--in other words, the primary law. Or you might decide to begin with secondary sources.

What is online? At what cost?

Next, determine what you are willing to pay tot this information. Westlaw and Lexis provide state-of-the-art legal research tools, for a price.

Before rejecting these providers as too expensive, consider that both companies market products designed for the sole or small-firm practitioner for a fixed monthly rate. Both WestlawPro and lexisONE provide plans, including databases geared toward a particular state or practice...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!