When you conduct legal research, it is essential that you follow a process. Many researchers simply throw words into Westlaw or Lexis+ and try their best to sift through the thousands of results, without first coming up with a research plan. They end up lost, confused, and frustrated. Taking the time to develop a research plan (and having the discipline to follow it) will make your research more efficient and less infuriating. The major steps of the research process are detailed below.
Credit: LexisNexis
There are acronyms such as TRAPP to help you think of concepts/keywords of legal or factual significance from your issue/fact pattern.
T - Things involved
R - Relief sought
A - Causes of Action or Defenses
P - Person or Parties involved
P - Places
One of the trickiest research tasks is knowing when your research is completed. Legal analysis is nuanced, and thorough research involves looking at a number of sources and types of materials. Finding one on-point authority does not mean your research is complete. However, it also is simply not possible to run every conceivable search in every conceivable resource and review every conceivable search result. Good legal researchers find the sweet-spot between one-and-done and scorched-earth type research.
The following may signal that you have found a good spot to conclude your research:
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