Every Legal Case Requires Research

Every legal case requires research. Logic and argument, and even good facts, are almost never enough by themselves. You need research to find out what you need, what the law requires, and perhaps most importantly, to tell your judge what he or she must do in your case. There is no substitute for research.

Or as we like to say, if you have a question, you should never guess the answer – your case depends on you actually knowing stuff.

If you are a pro se party in a law suit, regardless of how good your sources are, you will almost always have to do some legal research to make what you are reading doing applicable to your case. These articles, videos and other resources will help you do that.

There’s a tool that offers you almost as much flexibility and power as the best resources the debt collectors have, and you can use it. This video shows you how to use Google Scholar to find case law and other sources that will help you prove and defend your case.

A Lesson on Legal Research Using Google Scholar

In this video we look for law regarding the business records exception. We tell you how to structure your search and show you a search we did looking for the California rule using Google Scholar – after searching in (regular) Google as well.

More on Legal Research and Analysis with Google Scholar

In this video we look for “good” case law on the “undue hardship” provision of the bankruptcy law on getting a student loan debt discharged. We want a case that will help guide our future behavior or else support our legal position in a bankruptcy already filed. We wanted law of the 11th federal court of appeals and the courts following that law. But our methods would have been the same regardless of jurisdiction or issue.

Legal Research other than by Computer

There are some better ways, sometimes, to do your legal research. You can also do your research in a law library (How old fashioned!) or at court. This might be a valuable shortcut.