Free legal advice is hard to come by as legal help is expensive. Much of the cost is related to the time attorneys spend conducting legal research. Before someone hires a lawyer, they should perform a legal research on their own. This can result in significant savings on legal bills. There are a number of free legal resources on the Internet that can be used for this purpose. This article describes a method anyone can use to research any legal issue using free resources on the Internet.
Start by Researching Broad Categories of Law in General
The purpose of legal research is to find the very specific laws that apply to a given legal issue. Unless the researcher has been trained to perform legal research or experience with this particular legal issue, the research process should start by considering the law in general. This means the researcher must cast his nets wide. Starting with a broad category of law is advisable.
This part of the legal research process is not aimed at discovering the answer to specific legal questions. Rather, this part of the legal research process is aimed at gaining an understanding of what issues and sub-issues should be considered. This will often help change the way the legal issue is worded and lead the researcher down an entirely different path. Unfortunately, researchers often succumb to the temptation to skip this step and, as a result, they often miss these valuable alternative research paths.
Information about general categories of law can be found throughout the Internet. Legal article websites and specialized law firm blogs can provide a good starting point. Search engines can help researchers find these Internet resources. Information linked to these resources should also be explored. The researcher should read these law articles by making a mental note of the types of issues and facts that are being addressed. The researcher should also make note of any law that is mentioned in the legal articles, such as case names, statute numbers, or citations for administrative rulings.
Continue Researching the Actual Law
With a broad understanding of the issues and facts, the researcher can now focus on finding the specific law applicable to his legal issue. There are a number of different types of laws in the U.S.
With federal law, the sources of law include: the Constitution, federal statutes, court opinions from federal courts, and rulings from federal agencies (with international issues, treaties may also come into play). These sources of law are described in their order of authority. For example, the Constitution trumps all other sources of law and administrative rulings are trumped by all other sources of law. Notably, court opinions may either create law (this is called common or judicial law) or define ambiguities in the Constitution or statutes (i.e., fill in the law). Each state in the U.S. has developed these same sources of law for issues particular to their state. City and local governments have also established many of these sources of law for issues specific to their city or locality. continue reading…