Legal research
Everything we have written about legal research.
Posts about legal research
How to find a statute and confirm it is current
How to locate a federal or state statute, tell the code from the session laws, read effective dates and amendment history, spot repealed or superseded sections, and check the regulations underneath it.
Read guideA legal research workflow for solo attorneys and small firms
A repeatable six-step research process for lawyers without a research department: frame the question, find a way in, expand through citing references, check the citator, confirm statutes, document it.
Read guideHow to research a judge before a hearing
What to look for when researching a judge, where the public sources are, how to read prior rulings and financial disclosures, and when a disclosure raises a recusal question.
Read guideWhat a citator is: KeyCite, Shepard's and automated citators explained
A citator tells you every later authority that cited a case and what it said. This explains how Shepard's and KeyCite work, what the signals mean, and how automated citators differ.
Read articleHow to verify AI-generated legal citations before they go in a brief
Why language models fabricate case citations, what happened in Mata v. Avianca, and a verification checklist that catches hallucinated authority before a judge does.
Read guideHow to check whether a case is still good law
A step-by-step method for confirming a case has not been overruled, reversed or limited, using KeyCite, Shepard's or a free citator, and what red and yellow flags actually mean.
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