Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [47]
1. Look for cases that your initial cases cite.
2. Look for cases that cite your initial cases.
3. Search for some of the keywords that are likely to be present in cases that implicate your topic. If those keywords are likely to find too many cases that are only tangentially related to your problem, limit your Westlaw search by using the SYNOPSIS field—for instance, SY(copyright & parody) will find all cases that have the words “copyright” and “parody” in the case's synopsis, not just anywhere in the text. SY,DI(copyright & parody) will find all cases that have those words either in the synopsis or the headings.
Lexis's OVERVIEW feature will do something similar, though it seems to find fewer cases than SY,DI—both fewer false positives and fewer cases that you may indeed want to find.
4. Use West's key number system, which often lets you find cases on a particular topic even when the cases can't be consistently found using any specific full-text search terms. Look at West's Analysis of American Law volume for the general field in which you're doing research, and see what headnotes seem helpful. Also, see what headnotes are used in the on-point cases that you have found. Then search for the headnotes using on Westlaw, for instance using a search such as 92k1550 if you're looking for key number 1550 within category 92.
5. Look for administrative agency decisions that involve this issue. In many fields (for instance, public accommodation discrimination law), cases are often filed before federal, state, or local agencies, and then aren't appealed to a court. Some such agency decisions are available on Westlaw and Lexis, though you'll have to search each agency's decisions separately; there's no “all administrative agency” database that you can use. Find the relevant Westlaw and Lexis databases (in Westlaw, the IDEN database helps you find other databases), and look through them.
6. Look for trial court opinions that involve this issue. Westlaw includes some trial court opinions in the ALLCASES database, but there are more in the TRIALORDERS-ALL (civil cases) and CRORDERS-ALL (criminal cases) databases. LEXIS includes some in its CourtLink service.
7. Look for attorney general opinions (in Westlaw, AG and USAG, and in Lexis, STATES;ALLAG and GENFED;USAG) that deal with your topic.
8. Look for briefs and court filings that deal with your topic, for instance in Westlaw's BRIEFS-ALL and FILING-ALL databases, or in Lexis's CRTFLS;BRFMOT and CRTFLS;PLDNGS files.
9. Look for newspaper or magazine articles that discuss incidents that might never have turned into an electronically available court decision.
10. Do an Internet search (for instance, using Google) to find other incidents.
11. Look through legislative history databases to see whether any statutes might have been proposed to deal with your problem.
12. If you are looking for statutes that cover a particular topic, look also for municipal codes. Check with your research librarians to see the best places to search for municipal codes: Unfortunately many are strewn over various databases—Lexis Municipal Codes, MuniCode.com, AmLegal.com, SterlingCodifiers.com, ConwayGreene.com, and more—and some are on the cities' own sites.
B. Understanding the Law
1. Get the big picture
Once you've identified your general topic, figure out the general structure of the applicable legal regime. For instance, if you plan to write on free speech and captive audiences, learn the structure of free speech law. If you plan to write on the copyrightability of clothing designs, learn the structure of copyright law.
Start by reading a short book that's aimed at introducing students or lawyers to the field. Books in Foundation's Concepts and Insights series, West's Nutshell series, and Matthew Bender's Understanding series are often good for this. Ask both a reference librarian and the professors who teach in the field to recommend the book that they think is the best.
Do this reading even if you've done well in a class on the subject. First, you might have forgotten