Basics of Basic Legal Research

What's with kids these days? The moment you ask them to do legal research, they start of with the internet and give us what google gives first: American law!

First, nothing wrong with the internet but you must know what to look for and where.

When you are asked to research on a particular point of law (and you have enough time), start off with the statute. Read the provision out aloud (or at least aloud enough). Statutes are supposed to be read (or whispered) out aloud otherwise you might miss out on a word or even a punctuation and might take you the wrong way.

Once the provision is clear to you, find out case laws on it. In may occasions, this should suffice. The case laws will either confirm that your conclusions on reading the provisions were correct. You can prepare a note parawise, numbered and paginated and give it to your senior colleague. Alternatively, it might so happen that the courts have not afforded a plain meaning construction to the statute; instead, the courts might have given a different construction to the provision.

It is better to find precedents of the Supreme Court. If no precedents are available, then see if there are precedents of the relevant High Court for which that point is being researched for submission or of the lower court which comes under the jurisdiction of the High Court which rendered the decision. Don't forget: larger the Bench strength, merrier it is.

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